OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 


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Author  and  Party  Ascending  the  Soufriere  St.  Vincent 


OUR  WEST  INDIAN 
NEIGHBORS 

THE     ISLANDS     OF     THE     CARIBBEAN     SEA, 
''AMERICA'S  MEDITERRANEAN":    THEIR 
PICTURESQUE  FEATURES,  FASCINATING 
HISTORY,   AND  ATTRACTIONS 
FOR  THE  TRAVELER,  NATURE- 
LOVER,  SETTLER  AND 
PLEASURE-SEEKER 

By 

FREDERICK  A.   OBER 

AUTHOR  OF 

''CRUSOE'S    ISLAND,"   -PUERTO    RICO    AND    ITS 

RESOURCES,"   ETC. 

r 


NEW  YORK 

JAMES    POTT    &   COMPANY 

1907 


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0^ 


Copyright,  1904 

BY 

JAMES  POTT  &  CO. 


Dedicated 

TO 

K.  A.  Alford  Nicholls,  M.D.,  C.M.G. 

or 

ROSEAU,   DOMINICA 
BRITISH  WEST  INDIES 

AS   A 

Token  of  Friendship  and  Esteem 


257374 


CONTENTS 

I. 

Bahamas,  Isles  of  June    .        i 

PAGE 

I 

II. 

Historic  Harbors  of  Cuba 

23 

III. 

In  Cuba's  Capital  and  Roundabout 

33 

IV. 

Railroad  between  Havana  and  Santiago 

73 

V. 

The  Cuban  as  He  Was  and  Is  . 

90 

VI. 

Colonists  and  Capital  in  Cuba 

108 

VII. 

Jamaica,  Queen  of  the  Antilles 

120 

VIII. 

A  Few  Things  to  be  Seen  in  Jamaica 

U7 

IX. 

In  the  Black  and  Brown  Republics 

150 

X. 

Haiti,  the   "Home  of  the  Voodoo" 

164 

XI. 

Misgoverned  Santo  Domingo    . 

177 

XII. 

Treasures  in  Sea  and  Soil 

197 

XIII. 

America's  Oldest  City     . 

209 

XIV. 

Puerto  Rico,  Spanish  and  American 

222 

XV. 

Things  Worth  Seeing  in  Puerto  Rico 

243 

XVI. 

The  Danish  Islands  and  Virgins 

255 

XVII. 

Three  Little  Dutch  Islands     . 

267 

XVIII. 

Saint  K.tts,  Nevis  and  Montserrat 

285 

XIX. 

Antigua,  Barbuda  and  other  Isles 

306 

XX. 

Guadeloupe  and  the  Diablotin 

317 

XXI. 

Dominica,  an  Island  of  Wonders 

329 

XXII. 

The  Last  of  the  West  Indians 

342 

XXIII. 

Martinique  and  Montagne  Pelee 

354 

XXIV. 

Saint  Vincent  and  Its  Soufriere      . 

375 

XXV. 

Barbados,  Grenada  and  Tobago 

392 

XXVI. 

Trinidad,  and  the  Islands'  Resources 

407 

LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Author  and  Party  Ascending  the  Soufriere 

St.  Vincent Frontispiece 

Nassau's  Great  Silk-Cotton  Tree 14 

Baracoa,  Yunque  Mountain  in  Background.  . .     30 

Ruins  of  Fort,  El  Caney 48 

Tobacco  Workers  and  Reader 62 

Palms  of  the  Yumuri  Valley     74 

The  House  of  Cortes,  Santiago 88 

Court  of  a  Cuban  House,  Camaguey 116 

Kingston  Harbor,  Jamaica 130 

Fording  Cane  River,  Jamaica 146 

Palm-Thatched  Hut  of  the  Mountaineers....  166 

Puerto   Plata — Santiago   Railroad 176 

Main  Street  and  Mountain,  Puerto  Plata....  198 

Homenaje  Castle  and  Ozama  River 216 

Church  and  Plaza,  Aguadilla 228 

Ruins  of  the  Old  Aqueduct,  Caparra 254 

Dutch  Architecture  of  Curasao 268 

Principal  Street  and  Tramcar,  Curasao 284 

A  Planter's  House  in  the  Hill  Country 300 

Cascade  in  the  Jardin  des  Plantes. 320 

The  Boiling  Lake  of  Dominica 334 

The  Sucrerie,  Where  Empress  Josephine  Lived.  364 

Government  LIouse  and  Botanic  Garden 390 

Fountain  and  Avenue/ Port  of  Spain 410 


Our 

West  Indian  Neighbors 


BAHAMAS,  "  ISLES  OF  JUNE  " 

Their  air  of  mystery  and  romance — Antillean  outposts— Extent 
and  distribution — Suggestive  of  the  Lost  Atlantis— Their 
amenities  of  climate — Bright  seas  and  coral  strands — Char- 
acter of  their  population — Their  government — English  rule 
and  revenues — Historical  beginnings — The  aborigines  and 
their  remains— Native  "thunderbolts" — Pirates  and  bucca- 
neers—Haunts  of  "Blackbeard"  the  pirate — Where  he  made 
a  "hell  of  his  own  " — Alexander  Selkirk's  rescuer — Revolu- 
tionists, wreckers,  and  blockade-runners — Nassau:  how  to 
get  there  ;  what  to  see  there — What  the  Bahama  "  soil" 
looks  like — Native  animals  and  plants — The  landfall  of  Co- 
lumbus— The  Fountain  of  Youth — Home  of  flamingoes  and 
parrots — The  southern  islands  and  their  resources. 

WHILE  the  islands,  islets,  cayos,  "  cays "  or 
keys,  of  that  vast  chain  composing  the  Ba- 
hamas are  estimated  at  more  than  three 
thousand  in  number,  less  than  two  score  are,  or  ever  have 
been  for  any  length  of  time,  inhabited  by  human  beings; 
which  fact  may  account  for  the  air  of  mystery  that  still 
enshrouds  them. 

They  were  the  first  discovered  in  the  West  Indies — 
the  first  revealed  to  Europeans — the  first  to  challenge 
Columbus,  when,  in  1492,  he  approached  the  then  un- 


2  at*' WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

known  and  unnamed  America ;  they  were  explored  by 
mail-clad  conquistadores ;  warred  over  by  England  and 
Spain;  held  for  years  by  fierce  pirates  and  buccaneers; 
made  the  resorts  of  wreckers  and  blockade-runners ;  and 
this  may  account  for  the  halo  of  romance  that  still  invests 
them. 

Although  pertaining,  strictly  speaking,  to  the  Atlantic, 
these  Bahamas  cannot  be  considered  other  than  as  out- 
lying islands  of  the  West  Indies,  Antillean  outposts, 
guarding  the  northern  approaches  to  the  Caribbean  Sea. 
Through  their  portals  Columbus  first  made  his  devious 
way  to  Cuba  and  the  islands  beyond;  threading  their 
tortuous  channels,  Ponce  de  Leon  came  up  from  Puerto 
Rico,  searching  for  the  famed  Bimini,  Isle  of  the  Foun- 
tain of  Youth,  and  made  himself  an  immortal  by  the 
discovery  of  Florida. 

Nearest  of  North  America's  insular  neighbors  in  the 
West  Indies,  beginning  just  across  the  straits  of  Florida, 
the  Bahamas  extend  southeasterly  more  than  seven  hun- 
dred miles,  finally  "  petering  out  "  in  the  Silver  Shoals 
off  the  north  coast  of  Santo  Domingo;  but  a  prolonga- 
tion of  the  chain  as  superficially  viewed  on  the  map 
would  take  in  the  Virgin  Isles  and  the  Caribbees,  which 
protrude  like  gigantic  stepping-stones  above  the  blue 
waters  all  the  way  to  the  Orinoco's  mouth  on  the  north- 
east coast  of  South  America. 

And  what  daring  speculations  do  these  protruding 
peaks  of  submerged  mountains  suggest !  It  is  no  new 
hypothesis,  that  they  are  the  sole  visible  remains  of  a  vast 
Caribbean  continent,  which  once  occupied  what  is  now 
the  basin  of  "  America's  Mediterranean  " — the  "  Lost 
Atlantis,"  in  fact,  none  else  than  that  continent  surmised 
by  the  ancients  to  exist  beyond  the  fabled  Oceanus,  which 


BAHAMAS,  "ISLES  OF  JUNE^*  3 

even  the  scientists  are  now  prone  to  regard  as  something 
more  than  mythic.  The  Tyrian  navigators  told  of  it, 
describing  its  beautiful  scenery,  its  marble  palaces,  its 
glorious  gardens  of  the  gods,  its  rolling  rivers  and  cloud- 
piercing  mountain  peaks.  It  engaged  the  attention  of 
Plato,  Solon,  and  the  Egyptian  magi;  it  aroused  more 
than  a  passing  interest  in  the  Mediterranean  navigators; 
but  ere  it  was  explored,  long  before  its  mysteries  were 
made  known,  it  disappeared  beneath  the  Atlantic  waves. 
Atlantis,  Atlantic,  Atlantean:  whence  do  we  derive 
these  words,  if  not  from  those  *'  myths  of  a  drowned 
continent,"  which  ''homeless  drift  over  waters  blank"? 

"  Spirits  alone  in  these   islands  dwelt 
All  the  dumb,  dim  years  ere  Columbus  sailed, 
The  old  voyagers  said ;  and  it  might  be  spelt 
Into  dream-books  of  legend,  if  wonders  failed. 
They  were  demons  that  shipwrecked  Atlantis,  affrayed 
At  the  terror  of  silence  themselves  had  made."  * 

This  sinuous  stretch  of  islands,  extending  over  seven- 
teen degrees  of  latitude  and  as  many  of  longitude,  to- 
gether with  the  great  sea  which  it  separates  from  the 
Atlantic,  has  long  been  the  ''  happy  hunting  ground  "  of 
scientists  from  the  time  of  Humboldt  to  the  present. 
Professor  Alexander  Agassiz,  so  long  ago  as  1879,  ^^" 
pressed  the  opinion  that,  in  his  extensive  dredging  oper- 
ations in  the  Caribbean  Sea,  he  had  brought  to  light  the 
outlines  of  old  continents,  of  which  the  islands  inclosing 
that  sea  are  vestiges. 

Alfred  Russel  Wallace,  greatest  of  English  naturalists, 
declares  that  the  West  Indies  have  been  long  isolated, 
and  that  "  originally  they  probably  formed  part  of  Cen- 
tral America,  and  may  have  been  united  with  Yucatan 
and  Honduras  in  one  extensive  tropical  land."  Years 
*  Lucy  Larcom,  in  "  Bermoothes," 


4  OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

before  him,  Humboldt  said :  "  The  supposition  of  an 
oceanic  irruption  has  been  the  source  of  two  other  hy- 
potheses on  the  origin  of  the  smaller  West  Indian  islands. 
Some  geologists  admit  that  the  uninterrupted  chain  of 
islands  from  Trinidad  [northeast  coast  of  South  Amer- 
ica] to  Florida,  exhibits  the  remains  of  an  ancient  chain 
of  mountains." 

There  seems  to  be  a  striking  unanimity  of  opinion  that 
the  great  barrier-chain  of  the  Caribbean  may  present  the 
vestiges  of  a  sunken  Atlantean  continent;  but  we  must 
not  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  the  Bahamas,  which  prop- 
erly extend  from  near  Florida  to  Turk's  Island,  directly 
north  of  Puerto  Plata,  Santo  Domingo,  are  structurally 
distinct  from  the  Lesser  Antilles,  or  easternmost  Carib- 
bees.  The  former  are  mainly  of  coralline  formation,  with 
no  trace  of  primitive  rock;  while  the  latter  are  chiefly 
volcanic  in  character — in  the  language  of  Humboldt, 
"  islands  heaved  up  by  fire  from  the  depths  of  the  sea, 
and  ranged  in  that  regular  line  of  which  we  find  striking 
examples  in  so  many  volcanic  hills  in  Mexico  and  in 
Peru."  Between  these  two  distinct  chains  is  a  fragmen- 
tary group  of  isles  and  islets,  the  Virgins,  lying  eastward 
from  Puerto  Rico,  which  partake  of  the  coralline  compo- 
sition of  the  Bahamas — at  least,  above  the  sea;  though 
they  are  probably  erected  upon  volcanic  bases  far  beneath 
the  waves. 

These,  however,  are  the  views  of  the  non-scientific, 
or,  at  best,  the  semi-scientific  traveler,  and  are  not  put 
forth  as  in  any  sense  authoritative.  The  geologists  and 
geognostics  have  had  their  attention  re-directed  to  those 
gems  of  the  Caribbean  Sea,  by  the  terrible  convulsion  of 
nature  that  occurred  in  the  Caribbees  in  1902.  It  took  a 
cataclysm  to  move  them ;  but,  like  the  unfortunate  islands, 


BAHAMAS,  ''  ISLES  OF  JUNE  *'  5 

they  were  at  last  stirred  to  their  very  depths,  and  have 
been  writing  and  talking  ever  since,  so  some  valuable 
information  may  eventuate,  which  should  be  thankfully 
received  by  inquiring  minds. 

One  may  possess  an  inquiring  and  receptive  mind,  and 
yet  not  desire  to  penetrate  so  far  beneath  the  surface  as 
lie  the  vast  ocean  beds.  Still,  it  is  better  than  not  to 
start  in  at  the  beginning  of  things.  The  Bahamas  have 
been  considered  worthy  of  investigation  by  minds  the 
most  profound:  Quod  crat  demonstrandum.  Having 
done  our  duty,  we  may  now  journey  on,  with  light  hearts 
and  joyful  countenances.  The  old-school  scientists, 
Humboldt,  perhaps,  and  a  few  others  excepted,  persist- 
ently ignored  mere  beauty  for  beauty's  sake,  and  were 
prone  to  plunge  beneath  the  surface  for  the  why  and 
the  wherefore.  Then  they  came  up  and  wrangled  over 
what  they  had  found.  But  it  is  not  necessary,  here  in  the 
Bahamas,  to  more  than  skim  the  surface  of  the  shining 
seas,  or  at  the  most  take  a  dip  in  the  flashing  waves  that 
lave  the  coral  strands,  to  find  enough  of  interest  to  occupy 
one's  time  for  weeks  and  months. 

The  amenities  of  climate  are  so  great,  where  the  tem- 
perature preserves  an  agreeable  and  temperate  mean 
throughout  the  year,  without  frost  to  nip  or  excess  of 
heat  to  debilitate,  that  one  is  tempted  to  protract  a  stay 
indefinitely  and  become  a  resident.  Therein,  however, 
peril  lies,  as  is  attested  by  the  wrecks^  human  and  other- 
wise, that  so  plentifully  bestrew  the  strands. 

Probably  no  equal  area  elsewhere,  whether  of  land  or 
water,  has  witnessed  the  foundering  of  so  many  argosies, 
as  the  Bahama,  or  Lucayan,  Isles.  Like  the  sands  and 
coral  drift,  the  Bahaman  population  is  constantly  shift- 
ing; or  else  deteriorating.    It  may  be  said  without  prej- 


6  OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

udice  that  the  black  men  introduced  from  Africa,  to  re- 
place the  red  men  exterminated  by  the  Spaniards,  could 
not  boast  descent  from  a  race  superior  to  the  American 
aboriginal.  Neither  have  they  proved  their  right  to 
supplant  them.  Nearly  every  inhabited  island  is  a  Haiti 
in  miniature,  so  far  as  the  complexion  of  its  people  goes. 
The  aggregate  population  is  about  54,000,  ''  the  most 
part,"  says  the  statistical  Whitaker,  "being  descendants 
of  liberated  Africans."  The  other  part  is  composed 
chiefly  of  whites  who  would  like  to  be  liberated,  but 
cannot,  from  their  insular  environment. 

Why  ?  In  a  word,  because  of  their  poverty.  Notwith- 
standing the  climatic  amenities,  the  abundance  of  tropical 
fruits,  the  waters  teeming  with  fish  of  every  hue  and 
almost  every  kind,  the  seas  abounding  with  turtle  to  such 
an  extent  that  green-turtle  soup  is  ''  taken  only  under 
compulsion  " ;  notwithstanding  all  this,  poverty  is  every- 
where prevalent.  Sponge-fishing  and  salt-raking  are  the 
chief  industries — although  ''  industry "  comes  nearer 
being  a  misnomer  here,  where  nobody  labors,  than  any- 
where else  on  earth. 

Out  of  the  sea  come  the  chief  revenues  of  the  islands, 
and  they  are  to  be  had  for  the  gathering ;  yet  every  year 
displays  an  increasing  deficit,  and  the  public  debt  waxes, 
rather  than  wanes.  This  debt,  according  to  the  last 
published  statistics,  was  $550,000.  From  the  same 
source,  we  derive  the  information  that  the  public  revenue 
was  £78,000,  and  the  public  expenditure  i8 1,000,  leaving 
a  deficit  of  £3000,  which  is  about  the  annual  average. 
This  is  owing,  the  chronic  growlers  say,  to  the  '*  top- 
heavy  character  "  of  their  government,  which  is  carried 
on  under  a  governor  with  a  salary  of  $10,000;  a 
chief  justice,  $5000;  a   colonial   secretary,  $3500,  etc., 


BAHAMAS,  ''  ISLES  OF  JUNE  "  7 

to  the  total  of  something  Hke  one-tenth  the  total  reve- 
nues. 

England  gives  the  Bahamas  all  this,  freely  and  per- 
sistently, though  Nassau,  the  island-capital,  is  four  thou- 
sand miles  distant  from  Downing  Street,  and  transit  occu- 
pies fourteen  days.  But  the  Bahamas  have  to  pay  for  it, 
and  that  is  why  its  people  are  sorrowful,  perchance  un- 
grateful. 

The  small  army  of  office-holding  Britons  might  be 
tolerated,  on  the  score  that  England  has  in  the  past  sent 
hitherward  her  larger  armies  of  fighting  men,  who  have, 
shed  their  blood  and  spent  their  lives  in  acquiring  and 
afterward  defending  her  colonial  possessions ;  but  there  is 
one  other  infliction  due  to  British  domination  not  so  easy 
to  forgive.  It  is  the  bestowal  upon  all  her  West  Indian, 
islands  of  her  archaic  monetary  system,  with  its  barbarous 
nomenclature,  ''  pounds-shillings-and-pence."  Nearly  all 
the  islands  have  fractured  English  traditions,  to  the  ex- 
tent of  locally  substituting  the  American  decimal  system, 
thus  saving  time  present,  and  discounting  time  future  as 
to  prospective  penalties  for  infractions  of  the  unwritten 
law  against  unutterable  thoughts ! 

There  are  those  who  declare  that  English  rule  in  the 
West  Indies  is  retardative,  even  retrogressive,  as  exem- 
plified in  the  Bahamas ;  but  when  we  reflect  what  a  bul- 
wark England  has  provided  against  the  ever-threatening 
flood  of  black  barbarians,  we  cannot  but  admit  that  she  is 
entitled  to  the  gratitude  of  civilized  humanity  in  general. 
But  for  British  officialism  in  the  West  Indies,  with  its 
prestige  of  might  behind  it  and  visible  cordons  of  soldiers 
around  it,  there  are  many  islands  which  would  soon  re- 
semble Haiti  in  other  and  blacker  features  than  com-- 
plexion  merely. 


«  OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

A  glance  at  the  historical  beginnings  of  the  Bahamas 
will  throw  some  light  upon  the  unstable  and  deteriorating 
quality  of  the  inhabitants,  for  it  is  so  plainly  written  that 
"  all  who  run  may  read."  When  discovered,  more  than 
four  hundred  years  ago,  the  Bahamas  were  sparsely  in- 
habited by  a  weak  and  inoffensive  people  whom  Co- 
lumbus, for  lack  of  a  better  name,  called  Indians.  They 
felt  no  need,  and  had  great  lack  of  clothing ;  but  they  were 
equally  devoid  of  defensive  weapons,  being  armed  only 
with  primitive  bows,  arrows,  bone-tipped  spears,  and 
stone  or  wooden  war-clubs.  Columbus  found  them  not 
only  mild  and  inoffensive,  but,  as  he  wrote  in  his  diary, 
and  afterward  told  his  sovereigns,  "  There  are  no  better 
people  on  earth,  for  they  are  gentle  and  know  not  what 
evil  is;  neither  killing  nor  stealing."  That  the  invading 
Spaniards  both  killed  and  stole,  we  have  ample  evidence 
in  the  pages  of  their  historians ;  but,  as  they  were  merely 
feeling  their  way,  at  that  time,  through  the  archipelago 
toward  the  continent  which  they  fondly  imagined  was 
ahead  of  them,  and  did  not  wish  to  begin  their  explora- 
tions with  bloodshed,  they  refrained  from  taking  the  lives 
of  these  aborigines. 

Being  diverted  to  other  islands,  where  rumor  had  it 
there  were  mines  of  gold  (of  which  the  Bahamas  were 
totally  destitute)  it  was  nearly  twenty  years  before  the 
Spaniards  returned,  on  war  and  bloodshed  bent.  Then, 
being  in  need  of  laborers  for  their  mines  and  plantations 
in  Santo  Domingo,  they  captured  and  deported  all  the  In- 
dians they  could  find.  And  eventually  they  found  nearly 
all,  as  it  was  easy  to  hunt  out  and  run  them  down,  with 
or  without  bloodhounds,  in  those  islands,  covered  as  they 
Were  with  a  sparse  vegetation  that  afforded  but  few  hid- 
ing-places.    Some  few  of  the  Indians  escaped  for  a  while 


BAHAMAS,  "  ISLES  OF  JUNE  '*  9 

by  hiding  in  the  numerous  caves,  where  they  resided  for 
years,  in  the  end  miserably  perishing.  Evidences  of  their 
residence  in  these  caves  is  afforded  by  the  reHcs  found 
there,  such  as  celts,  or  stone  spear  and  arrow  heads,  and 
their  mighty  war-clubs. 

I  would  fain  lead  my  readers  in  quest  of  these  abo- 
riginal relics,  had  we  but  the  time  to  spare,  having 
ferreted  out  many  from  their  secret  resting-places;  but 
will  content  myself  with  stating  that  the  best  of  them  may 
now  be  found  in  the  National  Museum  at  Washington, 
and  in  the  Museum  of  Natural  History,  New  York. 
Suffice  it  to  state  that  the  Spaniards  did  their  bloody  work 
with  neatness  and  dispatch,  leaving  no  aboriginal  alive, 
either  in  the  Bahamas,  or  in  any  large  island  of  the 
West  Indies.  A  few  disjecta  membra  only,  scattered 
bones  in  caves  and  holes,  and  now  and  then  crania  of 
doubtful  authenticity,  remain  to  remind  us  of  those  ''  gen- 
tlest people  on  earth,"  and  it  may  be  said  without  fear  of 
contradiction  that  no  aboriginal  Lucayan  has  been  seen 
alive  since  the  sixteenth  century  ended. 

The  spear  and  arrow-heads  infrequently  found  through- 
out the  chain  are  called  by  the  present  natives  "  thunder- 
bolts," and  are  carefully  saved  and  cherished  as  amulets 
and  charms,  particularly  efficacious  against  the  lightning 
stroke.  These  *'  thunderbolts,"  the  ignorant  and  super- 
stitious negroes  affirm,  have  been  seen  to  descend  from 
the  skies  during  thunder-storms,  and  an  old  negro  once 
said  to  me :  '*  Massa,  don'  you  mek  no  mistake ;  me  see  dis 
a  t'undahbolt  drap  wiv  my  own  yeyes,  sah.  One  time  da 
t'undah  done  strike  a  tree  in  front  ob  ma  own  house,  an' 
ma  wife  he  say :  '  I  'clar  I  b'leve  t'undahbolt  done  drap 
in  yandah  tree  ' ;  an,'  sho  nuff,  when  me  go  to  look  an' 
zamine  dat  tree  he  be  right  in  da  crack  ob  urn  lightnin'  J 


to  OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

Me  mus'  b'leve  um,  ef  me  see  um,  sah."  And  believe  it 
he  did,  no  amount  of  reasoning  being  sufficient  to  con- 
vince him  to  the  contrary.  Incidentally,  this  incident  will 
throw  light  upon  the  length  of  time  that  has  elapsed  since 
these  celts  were  in  use  by  their  makers,  and  the  prevailing 
ignorance  of  the  present  natives. 

The  Spaniards,  then,  returned  to  the  islands  only  for 
slaves  and  victims  for  their  various  lusts  (of  which  they 
possessed  a  full  allotment),  and  the  first  actual  settlements 
were  made  by  English  adventurers.  An  English  navi- 
gator, one  Captain  Sayle,  was  fortuitously  preserved  from 
shipwreck  by  making  shelter  in  the  harbor  of  an  island 
which,  in  gratitude  for  his  deliverance,  he  called  Provi- 
dence. As  there  was  already  another  Providence,  on  the 
coast  of  North  America,  he  later  designated  his  island  as 
New  Providence.  This  was  in  or  about  the  year  1667; 
but,  although  more  than  one  hundred  and  seventy  years 
had  elapsed  since  the  discovery  of  the  Bahamas  (during 
which  period  no  settlements  had  been  made  in  the  chain), 
and  more  than  a  hundred  since  the  last  aboriginal  in- 
habitant had  been  carried  off,  leaving  the  islands  depopu- 
lated, the  Spaniards  bitterly  resented  this  invasion  of  their 
territory.  Five  years  later  they  made  a  descent  upon 
New  Providence  and  conveyed  a  gentle  hint  to  the 
settlers  that  they  were  not  wanted  in  that  part  of  the 
world,  by  roasting  their  governor  over  an  open  fire,  and 
destroying  all  the  property  they  could  not  carry  away. 

They  are  said  to  have  urged,  in  extenuation  of  their 
rude  behavior,  that  the  settlers  were  mostly  wreckers  and 
pirates,  anyway,  which  accusation  was  very  near  to  the 
truth.  *  The  numerous  small  cays  of  the  Bahamas,  with 
the  hundreds  of  tortuous  channels  and  shallow  water- 
ways, afforded  delightful  retreats  for  the  then  numerous 


BAHAMAS,  "ISLES  OF  JUNE"  ii 

*'  gentlemen  of  the  sea,"  by  themselves  styled  buccaneers, 
but  to  others  known  as  pirates.  Pirates  they  were,  at  all 
events,  if  the  old  chronicles  may  be  believed,  and  not  only 
in  Nassau,  but  throughout  the  entire  chain  of  islands, 
north  and  south,  indulged  in  every  kind  of  debauchery 
and  excess.  It  is  difficult  to  tell  just  when  they  were 
finally  exterminated;  but  the  descendants  of  their  con- 
temporaries, the  wreckers,  continued  to  exist  until  late 
into  the  last  century.  Indeed,  there  are  men  still  living 
who  make  no  bones  of  decrying  the  erection  of  light- 
houses and  beacons  for  the  mariner's  guidance,  saying 
tliat  the  Government  has  taken  the  bread  out  of  honest 
men's  mouths  and  destroyed  a  lucrative  profession! 

The  Spaniards  returned  again  and  again,  at  one  time 
being  re-inforced  by  the  French;  but  the  pirates  and  buc- 
caneers continued  to  flourish,  and  at  last  became  so  im- 
pudent (daring  even  to  scuttle  the  ships  of  his  British 
Majesty,  King  George  I.,  and  force  many  of  his  unfortu- 
nate subjects  to  "  walk  the  plank,"  that  he  dispatched 
that  famous  navigator.  Captain  Woodes  Rogers,  with 
instructions  to  either  reduce  the  pirates  to  obedience  or 
destroy  their  colony.  Captain  Woodes  Rogers  was  the 
bold  privateer  who,  in  1707,  rescued  Alexander  Selkirk, 
after  his  four  years'  solitary  exile  on  the  island  of  Juan 
Fernandez,  made  this  prototype  of  Robinson  Crusoe  first 
mate  aboard  his  ship,  and  gave  him  command  of  one 
of  his  Spanish  prizes. 

Captain  Rogers  was  sent  out  with  particular  instruc- 
tions to  kill,  or  capture  alive  with  a  view  to  hanging,  the 
notorious  John  Teach,  alias  ''  Blackbeard,"  who  had  made 
Nassau  his  rendezvous,  after  having  been  driven  from  the 
Virgin  Islands,  and  who  was  commodore,  as  he  styled 
himself,  of  as  desperate  a  gang  of  pirates  as  the  world  ha& 


12  OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

ever  known.  He  held  his  councils  of  war  beneath  the 
shade  of  a  spreading  banyan  tree,  which  is  still  shown  in 
the  suburbs  of  Nassau,  and  there  planned  piracies  which 
ravaged  not  only  the  West  Indies,  but  the  coast  of  North 
America.  Captain  Teach  derived  the  name  of  *'  Black- 
beard  "  from  his  long,  black,  and  flowing  whiskers,  which 
(says  one  who  had  the  privilege  of  conversing  with  him  in 
his  palmy  days)  he  suffered  to  grow  to  an  immoderate 
length,  and  the  effect  of  which  he  was  solicitous  to 
heighten  by  twisting  them  up  in  small  tails,  like  a  Ramil- 
lies  wig.  When  his  evil  passions  were  aroused — which 
was  nearly  all  the  time — he  appeared  a  perfect  fury.  He 
always  went  into  action  with  three  braces  of  pistols 
thrust  in  his  belt  and  slung  over  his  shoulders,  and  with 
lighted  matches  under  his  hat,  sticking  out  over  each  of 
his  ears. 

In  Nassau,  Blackbeard  was  looked  upon  as  the  devil 
incarnate,  and  indeed  he  was  never  more  flattered  than 
when  his  resemblance  to  his  Satanic  Majesty  was  com- 
mented on,  either  by  friend  or  foe.  He  delighted  in  ex- 
hibiting himself  to  his  merry  men  as  a  demon,  and  one 
day  when  business  was  dull,  over  under  the  lee  of  Hog 
Island,  in  the  harbor  of  Nassau,  he  appeared  in  the  role  of 
Devil  in  what  he  playfully  called  ''  a  little  hell  of  my  own." 
It  was  a  private  performance,  with  himself  as  sole  actor 
and  his  men  as  suffering  spectators.  He  collected  a  great 
quantity,  some  say  a  ton,  of  brimstone  and  combustibles 
between  decks  of  his  pirate  ship,  and  after  driving  his 
crew  below  and  battening  down  the  hatches,  he  set  fire  to 
the  mass  and  compelled  the  miserable  wretches  to  remain 
while  he  enacted  his  conception  of  the  devil,  to  the  life. 
The  situation  finally  became 'intolerable  and  the  men  burst 
the  hatches  and  escaped  to  the  deck;  though  Blackbeard 


BAHAMAS,  "  ISLES  OF  JUNE  "  13 

was  not  only  unaffected  by  the  smoke  and  fumes,  but 
seemed  actually  to  enjoy  them,  like  the  diabolical  sala- 
mander that  he  was. 

Captain  Woodes  Rogers  arrived  too  late  to  capture  the 
pirate,  who  sailed  for  the  Carolina  coast,  where  he  shortly 
after  met  his  merited  fate  at  the  hands  of  Lieutenant 
Maynard  of  the  King's  navy.  Caught  in  Ocracoke  Inlet, 
to  the  south  of  Hatteras,  Blackbeard  was  brought  to  bay 
and  forced  to  fight  the  brave  lieutenant,  who-  overcame 
him  after  a  desperate  contest,  and  cutting  off  his  head, 
stuck  it  on  the  end  of  his  bowsprit,  and  in  this  manner 
carried  the  ''  captain  and  his  whiskers  "  into  port. 

It  was  in  the  latter  part  of  17 18  that  Blackbeard  met  his 
untimely  end ;  but  the  Bahama  pirates,  and  following 
them  the  wreckers,  continued  to  exist  for  long  years 
thereafter.  All  the  maritime  nations  having  united 
against  them,  however,  they  no  longer  prospered,  and 
were  compelled  to  eke  out  a  mere  existence  by  fishing  for 
conchs.  As  these  shellfish  were  (and  are  now)  very 
abundant  in  Bahama  waters,  and  as  the  pirates  and  their 
descendants  subsisted,  in  great  measure,  upon  their  flesh, 
the  natives  have  acquired  the  name  of  "  Conchs," 
by  which  they  are  universally  known  throughout  the 
chain  and  in  the  Florida  Keys.  From  some  of  these 
conchs,  by  the  way,  are  obtained  the  beautiful  ''  pink 
pearls,"  not  infrequently  found  in  the  waters  surrounding 
the  southern  islands,  and  which  are  sometimes  of  great 
value. 

The  American  Revolutionary  War  wrought  a  change  in 
the  complexion  of  the  inhabitants,  for  it  brought  about  an 
irruption  of  Tories  from  the  Southern  States,  who  came 
over  in  large  numbers,  bringing  with  them  thousands  of 
negro  slaves.    This  peaceful  invasion  inured  to  the  benefit 


14  OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

of  the  islands,  for  the  new  settlers  brought  wealth  and 
thrift ;  but  eventually  they  sticcumbed  to  the  combined 
effects  of  insularity  and  climate,  and  became  as  depressed 
and  poverty-stricken  as  the  original  inhabitants. 

Another  result  of  the  war  was  the  capture  of  New 
Providence  by  an  American  force  under  Commodore 
Hopkins,  who  soon  after  abandoned  the  island  as  unten- 
able. It  was  retaken  by  the  Spaniards,  and  held  during  the 
war ;  but  was  again  captured  by  Americans,  sailing  from 
Saint  Augustine,  the  invading  force  consisting  of  about 
fifty  volunteers  commanded  by  a  gallant  Carolinian  named 
Devaux.  The  island  was  then  well  fortified,  and  more- 
over was  occupied  by  more  than  seven  hundred  Span- 
iards, yet  the  forts  were  taken  almost  without  bloodshed, 
owing  to  the  strategy  and  audacity  of  the  young  Caro- 
linian, who  deceived  the  garrisons  by  sending  the  boats 
from  his  brigantines  to  shore  loaded  down  with  soldiers, 
who,  instead  of  landing,  lay  down  and  were  rowed  back 
to  the  vessels,  from  which  they  were  again  taken  to  land. 
This  process,  and  a  great  hubbub,  deceived  the  Spaniards 
into  the  belief  that  a  large  force  was  about  to  attack  them, 
and  when  Colonel  Devaux  appeared  at  the  fortress  gate, 
they  incontinently  surrendered.  They  were  greatly  cha- 
grined, of  course,  when  they  learned  the  actual  number  of 
their  captors ;  but  that  was  not  until  after  their  arms  had 
been  given  up  and  they  were  held  as  prisoners  of  war. 
The  Spaniards  were  transported ;  but  the  island  remained 
5n  American  hands  for  a  short  time  only,  reverting  to 
Great  Britain  after  the  treaty  of  peace  was  signed  and 
ratified.  For  the  past  hundred  years  and  more,  the  his- 
tory of  the  Bahamas  has  been  uneventful,  except  for  a 
brief  period  during  the  Civil  War  in  the  United  States, 
when    Nassau    became    the    headquarters    of   blockade- 


BAHAMAS,  "ISLES  OF  JUNE"  15 

runners,  and  for  a  while  reveled  in  riches;  which,  how- 
ever, were  as  quickly  dissipated  as  they  were  acquired. 

Just  when  and  by  whom  the  Bahama  climate  was  dis- 
covered, is  not  a  matter  of  record ;  but  it  was  probably  by 
Columbus,  who  wrote  in  his  journal  of  the  deliciously  soft 
and  heavenly  airs ;  and  he  arrived  at  the  very  worst  sea- 
son for  experiencing  its  blandest  possibilities.  The  tem- 
perature averages  about  seventy-five  degrees  between 
October  and  May,  and  eighty  or  eighty-five  between  May 
and  October,  and  the  heat  is  always  tempered  by  refresh- 
ing breezes.  Situated  as  it  is,  just  beneath  the  northern 
Tropic,  Nassau  possesses  an  ideal  winter  climate — in  the 
shade ;  but  the  glare  of  the  ever-shining  sun  is  something 
terrific.  As  in  the  Bermudas,  the  white  rock  and  the 
"  water-colored  "  houses  reflect  the  rays  of  the  sun  with 
an  unmitigated  intensity.  But  the  houses,  all,  are  well 
provided  with  jalousied  verandas,  which  admit  the  salt 
sea-breezes,  excluding  the  heat  and  light;  and  then, 
there  are  trees,  here  and  there,  chiefly  of  the  tropical 
variety,  such  as  palms,  cocoa  and  royal,  silk-cottons  and 
banyans  or  American  figs.  At  least  one  tree  in  Nassau  is 
entitled  to  rank  among  the  vegetable  wonders  of  the 
world,  and  that  is  the  gigantic  silk-cotton  {Bomhax 
ceiha),  which  spreads  its  broad  limbs  and  buttressed  trunk 
over  vast  space  in  the  court-house  square.  Another  is 
the  famous  "  banyan,"  already  mentioned  as  once  afford- 
ing shelter  for  the  pirates  when  they  held  their  smoke- 
talks. 

Nassau,  on  the  whole,  is  an  interesting  town,  filled  with 
cultured  people  occupying  comfortable  and  attractive 
homes,  and  as  the  island-capital,  is  the  metropolis  of  the 
Bahamas.  Man  and  Nature  have  combined  to  make  it 
available  and  desirable  for  winter  tourists,,  its  situation 


x6  OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

being  unexceptionable,  and  its  hotels  and  boarding-house 
irreproachable.  It  has  boasted  for  many  years  a  large 
and  well-conducted  hotel  in  the  "  Royal  Victoria  " ;  but 
even  this  has  been  surpassed  by  the  new  and  perfectly 
appointed  ''  Colonial,"  both  under  American  manage- 
ment, and  every  winter  visited  by  delighted  thousands 
from  the  United  States.  They  share,  with  the  governor's 
mansion,  the  honor  of  being  the  largest  structures  in  the 
Bahamas,  and  occupy  the  most  advantageous  sites  for 
recreation  and  sight-seeing. 

With  the  exception  of  Havana,  Nassau  is  the  nearest 
to  the  United  States  of  any  island-city  in  foreign  waters, 
for  it  is  only  175  miles,  and  an  over-night  run  from  Miami 
in  Florida,  with  which  and  the  ''  American  Riviera  "  there 
is,  in  the  winter  season,  tri-weekly  communication, 
affording  rail  connection  with  every  town  and  city  in  the 
United  States  and  Canada.  Then  there  is  the  all-sea 
route  between  Nassau  and  New  York,  traversed  by  the 
splendid  steamers  of  the  "  Ward  Line,"  which  has  been 
established  and  well  known  for  many  years. 

New  Providence  is  comparable  to  the  Bermudas  in  its 
aggregate  of  similar  attractions,  and  has  the  further  ad- 
vantage of  being  much  nearer  the  Equator,  the  northern 
Tropic  running  about  two  degrees  south  of  the  island. 
Thus  a  voyage  through  tropical  waters  may  be  com- 
menced at  Nassau,  if  desired,  and  continued  more  than  a 
thousand  miles  southward  as  far  as  Trinidad,  coast  of 
South  America,  with  some  island  or  other  in  sight  every 
day,  and  a  good  prospect  of  making  harbor  every  night, 
depending  upon  the  means  of  conveyance,  preferably  a 
good  steam  yacht.  While  there  are  many  small  (and 
very  filthy)  vessels  at  Nassau  which  could  be  chartered 
for  a  run  through  the  archipelago,  and  while  there  is  a 


BAHAMAS,  '^  ISLES  OF  JUNE^'  17 

semiHDccasional  mail-boat,  manned  and  officered  by 
negroes,  which  pHes  between  New  Providence  and 
Inagua,  British  energy  and  revenues  have  not  yet  been 
equal  to  establishing  steam  communication  between  the 
different  islands  of  the  colony. 

After  the  sights  of  Nassau  have  all  been  disposed  of, 
after  old  Fort  Montague  and  Fort  Charlotte  have  been 
visited  and  admired;  Fort  Fincastle  (which  resembles  a 
stranded  stone  steamboat  more  than  anything  else  on 
earth)  and  the  deep  quarry-cut  called  the  "  Queen's  Stair- 
case "  have  been  inspected ;  the  "  Lake  of  Fire "  and 
''  Sea  Gardens  "  wondered  at ;  the  little  darkeys  who  dive 
for  coins  praised  and  petted;  then  the  visitor  is  likely  to 
settle  down  to  a  prolonged  rest,  content  merely  to  inhale 
the  delicious  air,  and  gaze  languidly  upon  the  diverting 
scenes  outspread  from  the  hotel  verandas.  There  are 
miles  of  splendid  roads  in  Nassau,  roads  hard  as  iron  and 
smooth  as  palace  floors,  because,  like  the  so-called  soil  of 
the  Bahamas,  they  are  composed  of  lime  and  coral  rock. 
In  this  connection  it  may  be  mentioned  that  though  the 
Bahamas  offer  alluring  prospects  to  the  agriculturist, 
inasmuch  as  almost  anything  on  earth  may  be  raised  there, 
and  especially  all  fruits  and  vegetables  of  the  tropics,  yet 
the  problem  ever  confronting  him  will  be  how  to  get  the 
various  seed  and  plants  into  the  soil.  The  surface  of  an 
ordinary  farm  when  cleared  for  planting  looks,  "  for  all 
the  world,"  very  much  like  the  azotea,  or  flat  roof-top,  of 
an  Oriental  house,  and  has  about  as  many  cracks  and 
crevices  in  it  for  the  insertion  of  seed.  A  certain  Ameri- 
can of  waggish  proclivities — and  this  was  in  the  long, 
long  ago — suggested  that  probably  the  Bahama  farmer 
prepared  his  "  soil  "  with  dynamite  and  injected  the  seed 
by  means  of  a  shot-gun ;  but,  however  it  is  done,  very  little 


18  OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

results  from  the  process.  Always  excepting,  of  course, 
the  exotic  hemp  and  indigenous  pineapple,  which  flourish 
exceedingly,  the  latter  growing  to  be  the  largest  and  the 
most  delicious  fruit  of  its  kind  in  the  known  world.  The 
pine  was  found  here  by  the  explorers,  by  the  natives  called 
anana,  and  was  one  of  the  many  desirable  gifts  of  the  Ba- 
hamas to  civilization.  Another  was  tobacco,  another 
maize  or  Indian  corn  (though  the  first  fields  were  found 
in  Cuba),  and  still  another,  cascarilla,  Croton  eleiitheria, 
which  derives  its  specific  name  from  the  island  of  Eleu- 
thera,  where,  it  is  possible,  Columbus  may  have  made  his 
first  landfall  in  the  New  World. 

What  is  generally  considered  as  the  first  landfall  and 
landing-place  of  Columbus,  in  1492,  has  been  variously 
located,  the  most  of  the  alleged  authorities  recommending 
Watling's  Island,  which  is  midway  the  chain  and  just  a 
thousand  miles  south  of  New  York.  For  many  years,  it 
was  thought  to  be  on  Cat  Island,  which  was  also  called 
San  Salvador,  the  name  Columbus  gave  to  the  first  island 
upon  which  he  landed.  I  myself  have  been  through  the 
chain  from  north  to  south,  and  from  south  to  north,  look- 
ing for  the  landing-place  of  Columbus,  and  for  remains 
of  the  Indians  he  was  the  indirect  means  of  exterminat- 
ing; but  all  I  can  say  is,  that  it  was  probably  either  on 
Watling's  Island  or  Eleuthera,  with  much  in  favor 
of  the  latter  island,  which  may  possibly  be  the  original 
Guanahani  of  the  natives,  and  the  San  Salvador  of 
Columbus. 

At  least  one  other  gift  of  Guanahani  to  the  civilized 
world  should  be  mentioned,  and  this  is  the  hammock,  for 
it  was  in  this  aboriginal  swinging  bed  that  Columbus 
found  the  Indians  indulging  in  their  midday  siesta. 
Many  of  the  native  fruits  and  vegetables,  such  as  sweet 


BAHAMAS,  ''  ISLES  OF  JUNE ''  19 

and  sour  sops,  avocado  pears,  sapodillas,  acajous,  cassava, 
etc.,  were  cultivated  by  the  Indians.  All  the  members  of 
the  citrus  family,  probably  the  bananas,  plantains,  cocoa- 
nuts,  guavas,  and  pomegranates,  were  introduced  by  the 
Spaniards,  but  are  here  perfectly  at  home  and  at  their 
best. 

There  were  no  large  quadrupeds  indigenous  to  the  Ba- 
hamas, the  largest  four-footed  creature  being  the  iguana, 
which  is  still  abundant;  and  until  recently  it  was  thought 
that  the  "  utia,"  a  small  animal  the  Indians  were  very 
fond  of,  had  been  exterminated.  A  few  years  ago,  how- 
ever, numerous  specimens  of  this  strange  quadruped, 
which  somewhat  resembles  a  woodchuck,  were  found  ex- 
isting on  the  Plana  Cays,  near  Acklin  Island.  The  de- 
lighted discoverer  at  once  proceeded  to  shoot  and  "  stomp 
on  "  all  the  innocent  little  utias  he  could  find,  afterward 
removing  their  skins,  which  he  took  to  a  museum;  for 
which  act  of  refined  barbarity  he  was  rewarded  by  having 
his  cognomen  added,  as  a  specific  appellation,  to  the  gen- 
eric designation,  Capromys.  The  birds  of  the  Bahamas, 
also,  have  been  decimated  through  the  indiscriminate 
slaughter  by  collectors,  very  few  now  remaining  of  the 
once  numerous  humming  birds,  mocking  birds,  the 
bright-plumaged  parrots  and  flamingos.  Of  the  last  two 
species,  the  parrots  are  still  found  in  flocks  in  Acklin 
Island,  and  the  flamingos  in  Andros,  where  they  breed. 

The  attractions  of  the  Bahamas  are  mostly  marine,  or 
submarine,  the  beautiful  blue  sea  containing  many 
piscatorial  wonders.  Its.  beauty-tints  are  derived  from, 
and  are  as  various  as,  the  sky  that  bends  above  it,  and  its 
pellucid  depths  are  owing  to  the  coral  rock  beneath.  It 
is  assumed  that  every  visitor  to  Nassau  will  hire  a  glass- 
bottomed  boat  and  be  rowed  across  the  bay  to  the  region 


20  OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

of  the  sea-gardens,  where  only  an  adequate  conception  can 
be  obtained  of  the  beauties  beneath  the  sea.  On  a  dark 
night,  and  when  a  Hght  breeze  ruffles  the  surface  of  the 
water,  make  your  way  out  to  the"  Lake  of  Fire,"  the 
luminous  lake  at  Waterloo,  not  far  from  town,  where  a 
boat  and  an  obliging  negro  are  always  in  waiting,  ready 
to  evoke  such  phosphorescent  effects  as  are  a  wonder  to 
behold.  "  Marine  curiosities,"  such  as  turtle  shells, 
corals,  sea-fans,  sponges,  conchs,  pink  pearls,  etc.,  are 
always  on  sale  in  the  little  shops  by  the  bay-side,  and  may 
be  obtained  in  any  quantity  desired. 

While  the  aggregate  land  area  of  the  Bahamas  is  nearly 
6000  square  miles,  there  are  few  islands  of  great  size,  and 
all  these  are  composed  of  the  same  calcareous  rock,  sup- 
porting a  scanty  vegetation  with  native  trees  such  as  the 
Pinus  Bahamensis  of  New  Providence,  and  valuable  cabi- 
net woods  like  mahogany,  lignum  vitse,  mastic,  etc.,  in  the 
southern  islands.  There  are  few  elevations,  the  greatest 
being  hardly  more  than  two  hundred  feet.  Beginning  at 
the  north,  near  the  Florida  coast,  we  have  the  Great  and 
Little  Abaco,  the  former  famous  for  its  perforated  cliff 
known  as  the  "  Hole  in  the  Wall,"  and  containing  a  large 
population  mainly  descended  from  the  American  Tories. 
Southwest  of  this  group  lie  the  Bimini  Cays,  where  tradi- 
tion located  De  Leon's  Fountain  of  Youth. 

Harbor  Island  was  the  rendezvous  of  the  old-time  buc- 
caneers, descendants  of  whom  still  reside  there,  in 
patriarchal  fashion.  New  Providence  we  have  already 
seen ;  but  southwest  of  this  island  is  Andros,  the  largest 
and  least  known  of  the  Bahamas.  Here,  only,  in  the 
chain  are  to  be  found  running  streams,  all  the  other 
islands  deriving  their  water  from  the  clouds ;  large  forests 
of  valuable  woods,  and  the  breeding-places  of  flamingos, 


BAHAMAS,  '^SLES  OF  JUNE**  21 

herons,  egrets,  and  other  rare  and  beautiful  birds;  while 
the  natives  retain,  or  rather  have  reverted  to,  the  habits 
of  their  African  and  aboriginal  ancestors,  and  exist 
mainly  in  a  semi-savage  state. 

At  the  head  of  the  reef-inclosed  Exuma  Sound  we  find, 
on  the  east,  famed  Eleuthera,  with  its  wonderful  perfor- 
ated cliff  known  as  the  "  Glass  Windows,"  and  south  of 
it  Cat  Island,  long  known  as  San  Salvador,  famous  for  its 
pineapples  and  historic  ''  Columbus  Point."  Eastwardly 
from  Cat  Island  lies  Watling's,  already  alluded  to  as  a 
rival  for  the  honor  of  being  considered  the  landfall  of 
Columbus;  south  of  which  are  Rum  Cay,  Long,. Crooked, 
Fortune,  and  Acklin  islands,  all  of  these  probably  visited 
and  named  by  Columbus,  in  1492. 

Politically,  the  Bahamas  end  with  the  Inaguas,  great 
and  little,  which  lie  about  midway  between  Cuba  and  the 
southernmost  islands,  the  Caicos  and  Grand  Turk's. 
These  last-named,  though  geographically  pertaining  to 
the  Bahamas,  are  under  the  governmental  jurisdiction  of 
Jamaica,  from  which  they  are  distant  about  450  miles. 
They  were  made  a  dependency  of  Jamaica  in  1848,  as  their 
inhabitants  found  it  more  convenient  to  communicate  with 
that  island  than  with  New  Providence  and  the  Bahama 
capital.  Very  few  of  them  ever  had  occasion  to  visit 
Nassau,  except  the  people's  representatives  in  council,  and 
these  complained  that  while  they  could  make  the  voyage 
up  in  a  few  days,  they  could  not  get  back  in  as  many 
weeks,  owing  to  the  opposition  of  the  prevailing  trade 
winds. 

All  the  southern  islands  are  noted  for  their  ''  salt-pans," 
from  which  are  raked  enormous  quantities  of  salt  derived 
from  the  sea-water.  While  the  northern  islands  are  at 
the  present  time  the  most  populous    (New  Providence 


22         OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

alone  containing  about  one-fourth  the  total  population), 
the  aboriginal  inhabitants  seem  to  have  been  confined  to 
the  southern  half  of  the  chain,  and  were  probably 
Arawaks,  working  their  way  northerly  toward  Florida 
from  the  West  Indies  and  South  America. 

The  oft-repeated  statement  in  the  Bahamas  that  the  old 
wrecker  instinct  still  survives  obtained  a  curious  con- 
firmation, in  the  winter  of  1903-04,  at  the  trial  of  a  band 
of  blacks  from  Rum  Cay,  charged  with  plundering  and 
ill-treating  the  occupants  of  a  yacht  which  had  foundered 
on  their  shores.  While  this  yacht  was  still  struggling  to 
make  port  the  savage  wreckers  boarded  her  and  began 
the  pillage,  which  was  nearly  accomplished  by  the  time 
she  went  to  pieces.  Their  treatment  of  the  owners  was 
so  barbarous  that  one  of  them  died  in  consequence  (it 
was  charged  by  his  son)  ;  but,  as  he  did  not  appear  at 
court  to  press  charges  against  them  when  arraigned  for 
trial,  they  were  allowed  to  go  free. 

On  New  Year's  Day,  1904,  the  bark  "  Primus  "  went 
ashore  near  the  Hole-in-the-Wall,  Island  of  Abaco,  while 
the  natives  were  at  church.  The  parson  lost  no  time  in 
dismissing  the  congregation,  and  all  hastened  at  once  to 
the  shore,  and  aboard  their  boats,  in  order  to  enter  a 
claim  for  what  valuables  they  could  discover  on  the 
wreck.  A  flotilla  containing  some  three  hundred  negroes 
soon  surrounded  the  ''  Primus,"  which  they  were  kept 
from  boarding  only  by  a  ruse  of  her  captain,  who,  with 
a  handful  of  small  coins,  kept  the  whole  three  hundred 
diving  for  them,  on  one  side  the  ship,  while  his  crew  hur- 
ried ashore  with  the  valuable  nautical  instruments,  which 
they  buried  in  a  place  of  safety. 

''To  the  wreckers  belong  the  spoils,"  is  a  maxim  that 
is  believed  in  and  lived  up  to,  if  not  universally  pro- 
claimed,  throughout  the  Bahamas. 


II 

HISTORIC  HARBORS  OF  CUBA 

Cuba  first  circumnavigated  —  Its  tortuous  coast-line  —  Its  hun- 
dred harbors  —  Features  of  the  coast  —  Cortes,  De  Soto, 
Drake,  and  other  worthies  —  Capture  of  Havana  by  the 
British  —  Memorials  of  many  Spanish  victims  —  The  Morro 
and  the  "  Maine "  —  Matanzas,  Cardenas,  Nuevitas,  and 
Gibara  —  Vita,    Naranjo,    Sama,    Banes,    Tanamo,    Baracoa 

—  Region  of  big  sugar  estates  —  Trees  of  the  tropical  forest 
in  Cuba  —  Where  capital  is  not  timid  —  Nipe  Bay  and  its 
bright  prospects  —  Sir  William  Van  Home's  great  schemes 

—  The  finest  coast  country  of  Cuba  —  Hunting,  fishing,  and 
exploring  —  Best  region  to  settle  in  —  Cape  Maisi  and  Faro 
Concha  —  Guantanamo  and  Escondido  —  Our  new  naval 
station  —  Where  the  American  invasion  began  —  Coffee 
and  Cacao  country  —  Daiquiri,  where  Shafter  landed  troops 

—  Las  Guasimas,  San  Juan,  and  El  Caney  —  The  Morro 
twenty  years  ago  —  Still  intact  —  Santiago  from  the  bay  — 
Where  Cervera's  squadron  lay  —  Cayo  Smith  and  the  "  Mer- 
rimac  " —  President  Roosevelt  at  San  Juan  —  Reminders  of 
the  Rough  Riders  —  An  improved  Santiago  —  The  Virgin  and 
Mines  of  Cobre  —  Down  the  South  Coast  —  Manzanillo,  Pico 
Turquino,  Bayamo,  Trinidad,  and  Cienfuegos  —  Batabano  and 
the  graves  of  Spanish  galleons. 

A  LTHOUGH  Christopher  Columbus  discovered 
/  \  several  of  Cuba's  finest  harbors  in  1492, 
X  .X^Ocampo  circumnavigated  the  island  in  1508, 
and  Velasquez  began  its  colonization  in  151 1,  not 
more  than  half  a  dozen  ports  were  established  by  the 
Spaniards  during  the  first  century  of  their  occupation. 
And  to-day,  more  than  four  hundred  years  after  the  dis- 

23 


24        OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

covery  of  Cuba,  there  exist  in  that  island  harbors  as  good 
as  the  best,  with  respect  to  natural  advantages,  which  yet 
await  development  in  almost  uninvaded  seclusion. 

With  its  two  thousand  miles  of  tortuous  coast-line, 
Cuba  possesses  nearly  a  hundred  harbors,  large  and  small, 
fifty  of  which  are  ports  of  entry,  and  the  remainder  little 
known.  Not  all,  perhaps,  are  historic  in  the  larger  sense, 
but  some  of  them  are,  most  certainly,  and  these  we  will 
visit.  Beginning  in  the  western  province  of  Pinar  del 
Rio,  right  in  the  tail  of  the  "  centipede  "  (which  Cuba  has 
been  said  to  resemble  in  general  outline)  is  the  harbor  of 
Bahia  Honda,  as  deep  as  its  Spanish  name  implies,  and  a 
favorite  resort  of  the  Cuban  insurgents  when  in  need  of 
supplies.  Many  can  recall  when  Maceo  made  his  famous 
break  through  trochas  and  Spanish  lines  across  the  island, 
in  1896,  ostensibly  in  mere  bravado  of  the  Dons ;  but  in 
reality  to  obtain  the  sinews  of  war  brought  to  this  harbor, 
and  others  near,  by  American  filibusteros.  Bahia  Honda 
is  pouch-  or  pocket-shaped,  as  also  are  most  of  the  harbors 
of  the  north  coast,  notably  those  in  Pinar  del  Rio,  and  all 
have  some  distinguishing  feature  in  the  contiguous 
country,  making  them  "  easy  marks  "  for  the  mariner. 

For  example,  fifteen  miles  east  of  Bahia  Honda  is 
another  little  harbor  dominated  by  the  "  Pan  de  Cabanas," 
or  Sugar-Loaf  Hill,  and  twelve  miles  easterly  again  is  the 
"  Pan  de  Mariel,"  another  table-topped  elevation,  or 
mesa,  distinguishing  the  entrance  of  the  natural  port 
of  that  name,  where  at  present  a  further  distinctive  mark 
is  the  prow  of  a  Spanish  cruiser,  "Alfonso  XII,"  sunk 
by  the  Americans  during  the  war,  sticking  straight  up 
into  the  air.  It  was  at  Mariel,  by  the  way,  that  some 
unsophisticated  Spaniards  fired  at  the  battle-ship  "  New 
York  "  with  their  Mausers ;  but  they  did  it  only  once. 


HISTORIC   HARBORS   OF  CUBA  25 

The  "  Pan  de  Guayaibon,"  fifteen  miles  south  of 
Havana,  warns  sailors  of  their  approach  to  this  famous 
harbor,  which,  together  with  that  of  Santiago,  is  the  best 
known  of  Cuba's  ports. 

Is  it  historic?  If  not,  then  there  is  no  harbor  with  a 
history  in  America,  for  it  was  first  found  by  Ocampo  in 
1508,  first  taken  possession  of,  as  a  ''  carecning-place," 
within  a  few  years  thereafter,  and  before  it  was  fairly 
under  way  as  a  port  stout  Cortes  sailed  from  it  on  his 
adventurous  voyage  to  Mexico,  in  15 19.  The  site  where 
first  religious  exercises  were  held  here  is  to-day  indicated 
by  a  chapel,  built  near  the  scion  of  the  original  silk-cotton 
tree  beneath  which  services  were  performed.  Nine  years 
later  Pamphilo  de  Narvaez  sailed  out  of  Havana  harbor 
for  Florida,  whither  he  was  followed  in  1539  by  Ferdi- 
nand de  Soto,  neither  of  whom  ever  returned  in  the 
flesh. 

Between  these  two  events  Havana  was  sacked  by  buc- 
caneers and  captured  by  French  privateers,  who  restored 
the  city  to  its  owners,  as  did  the  Dutch  pirates  who  took 
it  a  century  later,  after  appropriating  the  wealth  of  the 
populace.  Twice  it  was  taken,  twice  ransomed  and  re- 
covered ;  for  the  Spaniards  valued  city  and  port  com- 
bined more  than  any  other  in  the  West  Indies,  and  when 
the  English,  assisted  by  Colonial  troops  from  New  York 
and  New  England,  wrested  Havana  from  them,  in  1762, 
they  lost  no  time  in  offering  Florida  in  exchange.  For, 
they  had  not  squeezed  that  Havana  orange  dry,  though 
they  had  murdered  the  aboriginal  inhabitants  of  the 
island,  long  before,  had  imported  Africans  to  take  their 
places,  and  raised  a  mongrel  people  who  were  working 
for  them  like  a  colony  of  ants. 

It  wa3  in  th^  second  quarter  of  the  sixteenth  century 


26         OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

that  the  King  of  Spain  sent  over  an  ItaUan  engineer  to 
plan  fortifications  for  Havana,  the  result  of  whose  work 
appears  in  Morro  Castle  and  the  Bateria  de  la  Punta,  on 
the  opposite  side  of  the  harbor-mouth.  They  were  well 
planned,  and  to-day  are  the  most  picturesque  features  of 
Havana's  approaches.  Before  they  were  finished,  in  the 
year  1585,  the  city  was  threatened  by  that  masterful  sea- 
rover,  Sir  Francis  Drake,  and  the  panic-stricken  Span- 
iards hurried  matters  so  that  forty  years  later  they  were 
nearly  completed.  And  they  were  well-constructed,  more 
than  three  hundred  years  having 'passed  over  them  with- 
out inflicting  great  injury. 

A  tablet  in  the  seaward-facing  wall  of  the  Castle 
informs  one  of  the  event  of  1762,  when  the  British  and 
Colonials  breached  the  fortification  and  carried  the  Morro 
by  assault.  The  sequel  of  this  affair  was  the  construction 
of  the  vast  range  of  fortifications  banked  against  the  side- 
hill  opposite  Havana,  the  Cabanas,  about  5700  feet  in 
length  and  900  in  breadth — that  labyrinth  of  masonry, 
with  its  numerous  dungeons  in  which  many  of  Spain's 
enemies  were  done  to  death.  For  a  brief  period  the  Star- 
Spangled  Banner  floated  above  the  Cabanas  fortifications, 
and  they  were  cleansed  of  their  impurities.  It  was  low- 
ered on  the  fourth  of  February,  1904,  and  replaced  by 
the  flag  of  the  Cuban  Republic.  Like  the  Morro,  Cabanas 
is  a  monument  to  Spanish  cruelties,  and  down  in  the 
"  Fosse  of  the  Laurel  Trees  "  you  may  find  a  beautiful 
bronze  tablet  affixed  (in  1904)  against  the  wall  in  front 
of  which  innocent  Cubans  were  stood  up  to  be  shot. 

The  Spaniards  early  acquired  the  "  shooting  habit," 
and  seem  to  have  been  unhappy  when  they  could  find  no 
victims.  Their  places  of  execution  are  pointed  out  all 
over  the  island,  and  are  almost  as  numerous  as  the  bronze 


HISTORIC   HARBORS   OF   CUBA  27 

tablets  set  up  by  Governor  Wood  in  commemoration  of 
his  various  doings  during  the  era  of  reform. 

Since  the  war  ended,  the  Cubans  have  nearly  impover- 
ished themselves  erecting  marble  memorials  and  monu- 
ments of  other  sort,  to  their  brothers  slain  by  Spaniards 
in  cold  blood,  and  it  has  been  suggested  that  it  would  be 
but  an  act  of  justice — at  least  of  poetic  justice — to  compel 
the  wealthy  Spanish  residents  of  Cuba,  who  are  absorbing 
to  themselves  the  island's  resources,  to  contribute  toward 
this  end ! 

Not  Cubans  alone  have  been  sacrificed  by  the  Spaniards 
in  their  fury,  as  we  may  be  reminded  at  the  Cabanas,  for 
over  across  the  harbor  stands  star-shaped  Castle  Atares, 
within  the  walls  of  which  young  Crittenden  and  fifty 
companions  were  shot  to  death,  among  the  first  "  fili- 
busters "  to  lose  their  lives  in  the  cause  of  Cuban  liberty. 

That  was  fifty  years  ago;  but  there  are  more  recent 
victims  yet  of  Spanish  perfidy  and  cruelty,  and  they  lie 
in  the  mud  of  the  harbor  beneath  yonder  misshapen  hulk, 
between  Cabanas  and  Atares.  Have  you  forgotten  the 
"  Maine  "  ?  The  Spaniards  have  not,  and  somewhere  in 
existence  yet,  it  is  said,  are  the  wretches  who  blew 
up  that  gallant  ship  and  sacrificed  the  lives  of  two  hun- 
dred and  sixty  American  sailors!  They  still  live,  having 
been  shielded  by  persons  high  in  authority — it  is  rumored 
in  Havana;  but  they  no  longer  reside  in  Cuba,  having 
gone  home  to  the  "  mother  country." 

The  great  battle-ship  which  the  Spaniards  sank  at  her 
moorings  is  slowly  settling  into  the  mud  of  the  harbor, 
and  it  will  be  well  when  the  last  vestige  of  the  "  Maine  " 
shall  have  disappeared,  for  the  sight  of  her  revives  too 
many  irreconcilable  memories,  especially  in  view  of  the 
fact  that  the  Spaniards  in  Cuba  are  flaunting  too  freely 


28         OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

the  red-and-yellow  flag  of  ancient  tyranny.  The 
"  Maine "  massacre  was  the  last  wholesale  execution 
effected  by  the  Spaniards,  for  swiftly  following  after 
came  the  avengements  of  the  war,  with  the  sinking  of 
Cervera's  fleet  off  Santiago,  when  we  paid  off  the  old 
score  with  large  interest  added. 

The  flight  and  destruction  of  the  Spanish  fleet,  on  the 
third  of  July,  1898,  was  the  last  great  action  in  the  hun- 
dred-days' war  with  Spain,  of  which  the  first  (slight  in 
itself)  was  the  bombardment  of  Matanzas  by  Admiral 
Sampson,  April  27th,  when,  according  to  the  Captain- 
General  of  Cuba,  only  a  mule  was  killed.  It  was  a  Span- 
ish mule,  take  notice,  and  sometimes  that  species  walks 
on  legs  less  than  four  in  number ;  and  when  this  one  was 
buried,  it  was  not  lying  on  its  side,  after  the  manner  of 
quadrupeds  when  defunct,  but  with  its  *'  toes  turned  up  to 
the  daisies !  " 

Unlike  the  harbor  of  Havana,  which  is  completely 
land-locked  and  has  a  depth  in  its  center  of  from  50  to  60 
feet,  that  of  Matanzas  is  open  and  shallow ;  moreover, 
save  for  the  affair  of  the  mule,  it  is  hardly  entitled  to  be 
called  historic ;  so  we  will  hasten  on  to  another,  which  like- 
wise derives  its  importance  from  an  incident  of  the 
Spanish-American  war.  This  is  the  harbor  of  Cardenas, 
which,  however,  is  no  harbor  at  all,  large  ships  being  com- 
pelled to  anchor  fifteen  miles  from  the  town.  In  this 
roadstead  occurred  that  brief  though  brilliant  action  of 
May  II,  1898,  when  Ensign  Bagley  and  four  sailors  were 
killed,  the  first  American  victims  of  the  war — after  thos'^ 
of  the  ''  Maine  " ;  though  several  sailors  were  wounded 
that  same  day,  while  grappling  for  cables  off  Cienfuegos. 

The  north-central  coast  of  Cuba  has  no  good  harbor 
for  large  vessels — none  comparably  with  that  pf  Havana, 


HISTORIC   HARBORS   OF   CUBA  29 

between  which  and  Nuevitas  a  distance  of  several  h(m- 
dred  miles  intervenes.  This  last  may  be  termed  historic, 
as  having  once  been  the  seat  of  Puerto  Principe,  which 
was  removed  inland,  on  account  of  repeated  attacks  and 
depredations  by  pirates.  It  is  also  claimed  by  some  that 
its  large  though  somewhat  shallow  ha'fbor,  whicfe^is 
reached  through  a  sea-river  six  miles  long,  was  first  vis- 
ited by  Columbus  when,  in  October,  1492,  he  landed  in 
Cuba.  In  support  of  this  claim  it  is  pointed  out  that 
Nuevitas  is  still  celebrated  for  its  fine  tarpon  fishing, 
and  sponges,  as  in  the  time  of  Columbus ;  but  again,  the 
aspect  of  hill  and  mountain  is  not  that  given  by  the  cele- 
brated Navigator  in  his  journal.  A  harbor  which  quite 
answers  to  his  descriptions,  as  to  its  shape  and  setting, 
is  that  of  Gibara,  80  or  90  miles  to  the  southeast,  for 
inland  from  it  lie  the  four  great  hills  with  table-tops  which 
he  descried,  rising  conspicuously  above  the  plains. 

As  we  follow  the  trend  of  the  coast  southeasterly  we 
are,  of  course,  constantly  dropping  equator-ward  in  lati- 
tude, and  at  and  near  Gibara  are  three  degrees  south  of 
Havana  and  only  -one  degree  north  of  Santiago,  on  the 
southern  coast.  Here  and  beyond,  pursuing  our  course 
toward  Cape  Maisi,  we  find  the  harbors  pouch-shaped, 
and  profound  in  depth,  as  at  Havana  and  westerly,  but 
sheltered  from  the  heavy  seas  of  open  ocean  by  protecting 
coral  reefs  with  narrow  entrances.  Of  this  character 
are  Vita,  Naranjo,  diminutive  Sama,  Banes,  Tanamo, 
Baracoa,  and  several  others  not  yet  ports  of  entry. 

One  of  the  most  charming  of  these  deep-water  ports 
is  that  of  Naranjo,  back  of  which  lies  the  big  sugar  estate 
of  Santa  Lucia,  with  its  hundred  thousand  acres  of  fertile 
soil.  At  Naranjo  steamers  can  go  right  up  to  the  shore 
and  load  or  discharge  car^o;  a  pretty  stream  Qomes  in 


30         OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

from  a  tropical  wilderness,  a  great  hill  from  which  en- 
trancing views  may  be  obtained  rises  not  far  away ;  and 
this  diversity  of  surface,  together  with  the  rich  soil  and 
luxuriant  vegetation,  the  healthful  climate,  and  unexam- 
pled situation  as  respects  communication  with  the  outside 
world,  augur  well  for  the  future  of  *'  Port  Orange," 
should  it  ever  be  opened  for  colonization. 

This  port  was  entered  by  Columbus  on  his  famous 
voyage  in  1492,  and  either  this  or  another  like  it  inspired 
him  to  write  to  his  sovereigns :  "  This  is  the  most  beau- 
tiful island  eyes  ever  beheld,  full  of  excellent  ports  and 
profound  rivers.     .     .     .     One  could  live  here  forever !  " 

Now  and  again  majestic  waterfalls  may  be  seen,  flash- 
ing white  and  thundering  loudly  behind  a  screen  of  trop- 
ical vines  and  trees  hung  with  air-plants,  and  there  are 
miles  of  forest  along  shore  beyond,  filled  with  precious 
woods:  fragrant  cedar,  satin-wood,  and  mahogany. 
Seventy-two  varieties  of  tropical  trees  valuable  for  their 
uses  in  the  arts  and  industries  are  enumerated  as  being 
found  in  the  forests  of  Cuba,  the  greater  bodies  of  which 
overspread  portions  of  Santiago  province,  along  the  north 
shore  of  which  we  are  voyaging. 

In  this  region,  adjacent  to  the  coast,  are  not  only  some 
of  the  finest  sugar  estates  in  Cuba,  but  there  is  one 
ingenio  the  largest  in  the  world ;  for  the  soil  of  this 
section  is  of  almost  inex'iaustible  fertility,  and  the 
numerous  deep-water  harbors  opening  northward,  to  New 
York  and  a  market,  afford  the  greatest  facilities  for 
profitable  operations.  No  fertilizers  are  used,  for  the 
extent  of  virgin  soil  is  such  that  when,  after  ten  or  fifteen 
years  in  cane,  a  tract  shows  signs  of  exhaustion,  it  is 
practically  abandoned  and  another  area  divested  of  its 
forest  covering,  plowed,  and  planted. 


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HISTORIC   HARBORS   OF  CUBA  31 

The  harbors  mentioned  as  lying  to  the  southeast  of 
Gibara  are  gems  in  their  way,  most  of  them  adapted  for 
winter  resorts,  but  particularly  for  small-fruit  colonies. 
There  is  still  another,  in  fact,  there  are  several  others, 
but  one  in  particular,  which  has  an  expanse  of  water 
between  its  curving  shores  sufficient  to  float  a  navy,  and 
this  is  Nipe,  which  until  within  a  comparatively  recent 
period  existed  in  seclusion  broken  only  by  the  visits 
of  fishermen  and  filibusters.  There  is  no  bay  like  it  in 
Cuba,  or,  perhaps,  on  either  coast  of  the  United  States, 
for  its  situation,  within  21  degrees  of  the  Equator,  yet 
only  four  days  from  New  York  and  our  chief  Atlantic 
cities,  is  unsurpassed.  Like  its  sister  ports  and  harbors 
mentioned,  it  is  three  degrees  further  into  the  tropics  than 
Havana,  and  yet,  in  point  of  time  and  steaming,  one  day 
nearer  the  northern  cities  of  the  Eastern  United  States; 
and  this  amounts  to  much,  in  the  raising  of  fruits  for 
northern  market,  and  the  prices  one  may  get  for  them. 

Capital  is  timid,  according  to  the  common  saying ;  but 
capital  has  shown  no  great  amount  of  timidity  in  ''  plank- 
ing down  "  its  millions  on  the  north  coast,  as  shown  by 
the  vast  ingcnios,  the  yet  vaster  areas  being  brought  into 
banana  cultivation,  and  finally  in  the  extension  of  the 
Cuba  railway  from  Alto  Cedro,  on  the  main  line,  to 
Manopilon  on  Nipe  Bay,  where  a  six-mile  frontage  has 
been  acquired  for  a  future  city,  with  fifty  thousand  acres 
contiguous,  as  the  nucleus  of  a  great  winter  resort,  some- 
time to  rival  Palm  Beach  and  Nassau. 

That  renowned  magician,  Sir  William  Van  Home,  has 
waved  his  wand  over  Cuba,  and  wherever  it  touched,  at 
Havana,  at  Camagiiey,  at  Nipe  and  at  Santiago,  he  has 
planned  to  build  a  great  hotel.  Each  hotel  will  have 
attractions  peculiarly  its  own,  and  as  the  four  will  be 


32         OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

practically  connected  by  Sir  William's  railway,  the  route 
of  the  future  tourist  to  Cuba  may  be  vastly  more  varied 
and  interesting  than  by  any  of  the  lines  hitherto  ex- 
isting. 

While  Nipe  was  known  to  pirates,  buccaneers,  and 
wreckers,  who  made  it  their  rendezvous  in  succession,  it 
was  either  unknown,  or  unvisited,  except  by  them, 
during  long  centuries,  so  few  important  events  have 
transpired  here.  An  occurrence  which  rises  to  the  dignity 
of  an  event,  in  latter  years,  was  the  visit  paid  Nipe  by  four 
war-ships  of  the  American  squadron  shortly  after  the 
naval  fight  at  Santiago.  Lying  inside,  in  fancied  security, 
protected  by  submarine  mines  in  the  channel,  was  the 
Spanish  gunboat  ''  Don  Jorge  Juan,"  of  near  a  thousand 
tons.  Her  commander  did  not  believe  the  Yankees  would 
venture  over  the  mine-planted  channel  through  the  reefs ; 
but,  since  Dewey  proved  the  comparative  harmlessness  of 
Spanish  explosives  beneath  the  sea,  our  gallant  tars  mind 
them  no  longer ;  so  the  ''  Don  Jorge  Juan  "  was  soon  sent 
to  keep  them  company. 

There  has  long  been  a  Spanish  line  of  coastal  steamers 
around  the  island,  which  touch  in. at  most  of  the  ports, 
but  it  is  by  no  means  up  to  the  standard  set  by  the  Amer- 
ican ships,  and  had  better  be  avoided.  Santiago  and 
Havana  have  been  for  years  served  by  the  old  Ward 
Line ;  but  the  only  American  service  reaching  the  im- 
portant ports  of  the  north  coast,  which,  owing  to  their 
more  advantageous  situation  in  general  are  going  to  be 
the  ports  of  the  future,  is  the  Munson  Line,  which  in- 
cludes them  all  between  Matanzas  and  Baracoa,  a  dis- 
tance of  some  six  hundred  miles.  Its  Mobile-Havana 
line  gives  a  short  and  direct  route  through  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico,  only  three  days  in  duration,  while  its  New  York 


HISTORIC  HARBORS  OF  CUBA  33 

steamers  consume  more  time  en  voyage,  but  take  one  to 
parts  of  the  island  less  visited,  but  better  worth  the 
while. 

Any  route  to  Cuba  is  increasingly  attractive  as  one 
runs  southward  in  the  winter  time ;  but  there  is  none  that 
combines  so  many  attractions  as  that  covered  by  the 
schedule  of  the  Munson  Line,  direct  from  New  York  to 
Matanzas,  thence,  along  the  tropic-seeking  stretch  of 
coast,  to  quaint  and  ancient  Baracoa.  There  is  no 
round-trip  within  my  experience  that  offers  such  variety 
of  scene  and  varying  attractions — and  I  have  taken  more 
than  one   in  the  course  of  my  existence. 

Two  or  three  days  are  spent  in  each  port,  where  the 
launclies  of  the  steamer  are  placed  freely  at  the  passen- 
gers' disposal,  and  while  the  steamer  is  discharging  her 
cargo  for  the  Cuban  market,  or  taking  in  sugar,  fruits, 
and  bananas  for  the  North,  her  happy  guests  are  fishing 
in  the  harbors,  exploring  the  creeks  for  curlews,  wild 
ducks,  egrets,  and  alligators ;  shell-hunting  on  the  beaches, 
sponge-fishing  on  the  coral  reefs,  picnicking  generally, 
to  their  hearts'  content. 

There  is  hunting  to  be  had,  all  along  the  coast,  when 
one  knows  where  to  look  for  it,  and  if  alligators  are 
desired,  try  the  beautiful  Mayari  River,  which  empties 
into  Nipe  Bay ;  if  deer,  wild  hogs,  and  boa  constrictors, 
essay  the  forest  country  bordering  that  bay  and,  in  fact, 
extending  right  across  to  Santiago.  If  adventure  pure 
and  simple,  get  the  ship's  commander  to  have  you  put 
ashore  at  the  mouth  of  the  Mayari,  where,  up  stream  a 
little,  there  is  one  of  the  quaintest  towns  in  Cuba, 
embowered  in  groves  of  fruit  trees,  and  within  hail  of 
the  wilderness  that  fills  the  valleys  and  spreads  out  over 
the  mountains  between  Nipe  and  Baracoa. 


34        OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

Oh,  it  is  a  fascinating  country,  that  containing  the 
sierras  de  Cristal,  the  Cuchillas  de  Toa,  and  the  far- 
famed  Yunque  that  o'er-tops  the  peerless  port  of  Baracoa. 
Here,  in  this  southeastern  end  of  Cuba  comprised  in  the 
eastern  half  of  Santiago  Province,  all  the  unique  vegetal 
productions  of  Cuba  are  concentrated ;  and,  ''  by  the  same 
token,"  this  region  was  once  the  home  of  aboriginal 
Indians  who  were  drawn  hither  by  the  unexampled  dis- 
play of  Nature's  wealth. 

Within  this  district,  which  closely  approximates  to 
the  territory  given  up  by  the  Spaniards  at  the  surrender 
of  Santiago,  in  July,  1898,  are  to  be  found,  if  anywhere 
in  Cuba,  the  last  vestiges  of  the  aboriginal  people,  the 
Cuban  Indians.  In  a  story  I  once  wrote,  entitled  "  Under 
the  Cuban  Flag,"  finding  it  necessary  to  the  proper 
working  of  the  plot  for  an  Indian,  or  Indians,  to  be  in 
it,  I  "  discovered  "  a  tribe  residing  near  the  Sierra  de 
Cristal,  around  the  headwaters  of  the  various  streams 
that  flow  hence  to  either  coast.  And,  if  they  are  not 
there,  they  ought  to  be,  and  I  am  disappointed  to  learn 
that  some  American  scientists  have  visited  the  outskirts 
of  this  region  without  finding  any  trace  of  a  pure-blooded 
Indian. 

Here,  right  here,  is  an  opportunity  for  some  young 
and  able  explorer  to  make  his  reputation.  Let  him  go 
ashore  from  a  Munson-Line  steamer  at  Baracoa, 
Tamano,  or  Nipe,  well  equipped  for  camping-out,  with  a 
Cuban  guide  to  show  him  the  way,  and  a  Cuban  horse 
to  carry  him,  and  stay  in  the  region  at  least  a  month — 
though  all  winter  would  be  better.  My  word  for  it, 
he  would  find  enough  to  reward  an  outlay  ten  times  the 
cost  of  this  venture — assuming  he  craves  adventure  and 
loves  Nature;   and  incidentally,  he  might  find  a  location- 


HISTORIC  HARBORS  OF  CUBA  35 

for  a  future  home  where  all  the  charms  of  Eden — includ- 
ing even  a  serpent — could  be  combined. 

But  it  is  difficult  to  lure  the  passengers  aboard  a  Mun- 
son-Liner  away  from  the  ''  flesh-pots,"  sad  to  say.  Sev- 
eral of  my  companions  on  the  voyage,  after  a  few  days  in 
Havana,  returned  to  ship  with  such  relief  as  only  the  way- 
worn traveler  feels  on  reaching  home.  And  there  they 
stayed,  while  I  was  going  about  the  island,  suffering  all 
sorts  of  things  in  my  desire  to  acquire  accurate  informa- 
tion and  photographs  "  on  the  spot."  When  at  last  I  met 
them  again  on  board,  (myself  being  worn  down  with 
hard  fare  and  hard  beds,  and  ill  from  a  drink 
of  "  raw,  unadulterated  water "  taken  in  a  moment 
of  forgetfulness),  they  appeared  as  fresh  as  when  they 
started.  The  worst  of  it  was,  they  were  not  at  all 
ashamed  of  their  long  period  of  idleness  on  board,  for 
they  declared  that  they  had  to  imbibe  some  sort  of 
information,  going  about  as  they  did  from  port  to  port, 
visiting  sugar  estates  and  banana  plantations,  entering 
little  harbors  by  moonlight  and  tying  up  right  at  the 
wharves ;  riding  into  the  country  while  the  steamer 
loaded  up,  boating  and  bathing  in  bays  with  sandy 
beaches. 

The  voyage  along  the  north  coast  ends  at  Baracoa, 
a  circular,  land-locked  harbor  guarded  by  Yunque  or 
Anvil  Hill,  flat-topped,  steep-sided,  and  near  two  thousand 
feet  in  height.  Baracoa  is  the  site  of  Cuba's  first  white 
settlement,  151 1,  and  the  castle  is  pointed  out  which 
was  built,  tradition  says,  by  Velasquez,  or  Don  Diego 
Columbus — who  was  the  first  "  Diego  "  of  importance 
in  America,  let  it  be  noted  in  passing. 

Cape  Maisi,  where  the  "  Faro  Concha  "  stands — the 
lone  lighthouse  on  the  extreme  eastern  tip  of  Cuba — • 


36         OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

is  exactly  due  south  from  New  York.  This,  of  course, 
does  not  add  to  its  importance,  for  Maisi  was  discovered 
more  than  a  hundred  years  before  Manhattan  had  a 
name  bestowed  upon  it  by  the  lumbering  Dutchmen  who 
followed  after  the  Spaniards  to  America.  But,  this  fact 
is  mentioned,  peradventure  one  gets  lost  he  may  be 
enabled  to  obtain  his  bearings :  due  south  from  New  York, 
and  due  east  of  Guantanamo  — from  the  former  about 
1500  miles,  and  from  the  latter  perhaps  one  hundred. 

The  south  coast  is  vastly  different  from  the  north, 
bare — and  would  be  bleak  if  it  were  further  from  the 
Equator — rising  in  great  terraces  and  indented  with  few 
harbors — but  those  few  of  great  importance. 

Guantanamo  comes  first  in  voyaging  from  Maysi 
westward,  and  as  it  was  probably  discovered  first  by  the 
Spaniards,  there  will  be  no  harm  in  mentioning  it  before 
Santiago,  which  has  the  harbor  par  excellence  of  the 
entire  south  coast.  It  lies  about  40  miles  east  of  San- 
tiago, and  comes  into  history  as  the  scene  of  a  foolish 
attempt  to  take  that  city  by  the  English,  in  1741,  on 
which  occasion  Lawrence  Washington,  brother  of 
George,  assisted  to  the  best  of  his  abilities,  being  with 
his  much  beloved  Admiral  Vernon,  after  whom  he  named 
the  estate  on  the  Potomac  which  at  his  death  he  left 
to  the  so-called  Father  of  his  Country. 

With  a  base  forty  rpiles  from  their  objective,  the 
British  had  small  chance  of  taking  Santiago,  and  soon 
gave  it  up,  sailing  away  and  leaving  Guantanamo  to  the 
solitude  in  which  they  found  it. 

As  Guantanamo  is  probably  better  known  than  any 
other  port  on  this  coast,  after  Santiago,  since  it  played 
such  an  important  part  as  a  naval  base  in  Admiral 
Sampson's  operations  against  the   Morro,   we  will  not 


HISTORIC  HARBORS  OF  CUBA  37 

linger  here,  save  to  note  that  its  great  bay  rivals  that  of 
Nipe  on  the  north  coast  in  extent  and  situation,  being 
from  half  a  mile  to  four  miles  wide  and  ten  long,  with 
harbors  within  a  harbor,  as  Nipe  also  has. 

We  cannot  forget  that  the  American  invasion  of  Cuba 
began  here,  one  day  in  June,  '98,  with  the  landing  of 
600  marines,  who  made  the  Spaniards  on  the  sandhills 
"  walk  Spanish  "  until  they  could  walk  no  longer,  when 
they  ran.  The  Yankees  then  cut  off  their  water  supply 
by  filling  up  the  only  well,  and  as  there  was  not  another 
within  twelve  miles,  that  settled  the  matter  for  the  "  Jack 
Spaniards,"  who  had  to  drink  their  vino  "  without." 

In  the  ''  good  old  times  "  of  buccaneers  and  pirate 
crews  Guantanamo  served  as  a  retreat  for  cut-throats 
and  sea-rovers,  who  also  lurked  in  the  secluded  nooks  of 
another  natural  port  not  far  distant  called  Escondido,  or 
the  Hidden  Harbor,  where  the  hill  on  which  they  had 
their  lookout  is  still  remembered.  Since  our  acquisition 
of  Guantanamo  as  a  naval  station,  many  a  luckless 
marine  has  wished  with  all  his  heart  that  it  was  still 
escondido,  and  had  never  been  discovered,  for  it  is  one 
of  the  most  lonesome  places  in  the  world.  The  town  of 
Guantanamo  lies  more  than  twelve  miles  distant  from 
Caimanera,  near  the  harbor  entrance,  and  whenever  poor 
"  Jack  "  desires  to  go  on  a  spree  he  has  first  to  traverse 
a  broad  expanse  of  dismal  salt  flats,  which  aggravates 
his  thirst  to  such  an  extent  that  it  seems  sometimes 
utterly  beyond  allay,  and  the  "  benders  "  that  result  are 
the  most  terrific  on  record. 

Two  small  steamers  run  between  Santiago  and  the 
bay,  whenever  their  owners  feel  disposed  to  let  them, 
and  two  railroads  are  in  process  of  construction  which 
will  soon  connect  with  the  "  Cuba  "  system  at  Maya,  or 


38         OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

Moron,  passing  through  a  region  rich  in  minerals,  timber, 
and  coffee.  The  home  of  the  famous  Cuban  coffee  is 
among  the  beautiful  hills  behind  Guantanamo,  and  this 
is  the  section  in  which  the  colonist  should  settle  who 
wishes  to  engage  in  that  culture,  and  the  raising  of 
cacao.  The  vast  and  extensive  ingcnios  constitute  a 
group  by  themselves,  and  are  owned  by  some  of  the 
oldest  families  in  Cuba. 

The  bay  itself  can  hold  all  the  ships  of  the  navy  that 
it  might  be  found  desirable  to  send  there,  and  as  the 
water  is  deep,  and  the  seaward  hills  protect  from  hurri- 
canes, nothing  better  could,  or  should,  be  asked  by 
Uncle  Sam — especially  as  he  got  it  all  for  nothing,  and 
presumably  knows  enough  not  to  "  look  a  gift-horse  in 
the  mouth."  Its  situation  is  all  that  could  be  desired, 
with  respect  to  its  command  of  the  Windward  Channel 
and  the  route  to  Panama,  and  it  will  afford  a  fine  ren- 
dezvous for  our  war-ships,  while  the  canal  is  being  con- 
structed and  after  it  is  open. 

When  I  paid  my  first  visit  to  he  south  coast  of  Cuba, 
in  1887,  nobody  aboard  ship  ever  thought  of  pointing 
out  Daiquiri,  about  midway  between  Guantanamo  and 
Santiago,  which  the  maps  did  not  even  dignify  with  the 
designation  of  surgidcro,  or  anchoring-place ;  but  since 
General  Shafter  landed  there  with  our  troops  for  the 
invasion  of  Cuba,  in  June,  1898,  it  has  been  a  conspic- 
uous landmark.  Its  iniportance  ceased  with  the  ending 
of  the  war;  but  not  so  that  of  Santiago  and  the  Morro, 
which  has,  if  possible,  been  enhanced. 

Here  is  what  I  wrote  at  first  sight  of  the  latter,  years 
ago:  All  in  sight  now  are  the  Cobre  Mountains,  the 
Copper  Range  of  Cuba,  reputed  storehouse  of  minerals, 
especially  of  copper  and  iron.     At  last,  a  break  in  the 


HISTORIC  HARBORS  OF  CUBA  39 

coast  reveals  the  object  of  our  search,  the  entrance  to 
Santiago's  harbor.  The  Hne  of  chffs,  washed  by  the 
rough  sea-waves,  is  abruptly  terminated  by  what  appears 
to  be  an  artificial  construction,  and  nearer  approach 
discloses  the  most  picturesque  fort  and  castle  ever  built, 
perhaps,  in  the  New  World.  The  great  cliff,  its  base 
hollowed  into  caverns  by  the  wave  action  of  centuries, 
is  carried  up  from  the  sea-line  in  a  succession  of  walls, 
towers,  turrets,  forming  a  most  perfect  type  of  the  rock- 
ribbed  fortress  of  mediaeval  times.  Perched  upon  the 
lowermost  wall  and  overhanging  the  sea,  is  a  domed 
sentry-box  of  stone,  flanked  by  cannon  evidently  old 
when  the  history  of  our  land  was  new. 

The  waves  have  eaten  into  this  cliff  all  round  its 
base,  so  that  it  may  not  be  many  years  ere  this  tower 
totters  and  falls  into  the  sea.  Above,  the  lines  of 
masonry  are  sharply  defined,  each  guarded  terrace  reced- 
ing from  the  one  below  it,  each  ornamented  with  antique 
and  useless  cannon,  and  the  whole  dominated  by  a  mas- 
sive tower.  The  pilot  boards  us  at  the  harbor  entrance 
and  guides  our  steamer  close  beneath  the  impending 
battlements,  and  we  note  the  group  of  idle  soldiers  above, 
so  near  that  we  can  hear  them  converse.  We  sweep 
past  this  jutting  promontory,  guarded  by  ancient  fort 
with  walls  of  pink  and  gray  harmoniously  blended,  and 
quickly  another  battery  faces  us,  opposite  the  entrance 
to  a  lateral  bay  with  snowy  sand-beach.  This  second 
fortification  is  already  succumbing  to  the  assaults  of  the 
waves,  and  has  been  abandoned.  Two  hundred  feet 
above  us  the  castled  fortress  rears  its  ramparts  for  a 
moment,  then  we  have  glided  past,  and  are  pursuing  a 
sinuous  course  toward  the  city  of  Santiago. 

That  description  of  old  Morro  might  have  been  written 


40         OUR  WEST  INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

in  1904,  instead  of  nearly  a  score  of  years  ago,  so  far  as 
the  superficial  aspect  of  the  castle  is  concerned.  And 
since  then,  as  we  know,  there  has  been  assembled  in 
front  of  it  the  flower  of  our  navy ;  big  battle-ships, 
protected  and  unprotected  cruisers,  dynamite-discharging 
"  Vesuviuses,"  torpedo  craft,  ''  destroyers,"  and  every- 
thing of  that  sort. 

Nearly  two  months  intervened  between  the  discovery 
of  Cervera's  squadron  in  Santiago's  harbor  and  the 
surrender  of  the  city,  and  during  forty  days  and  more 
the  war-ships  delivered  themselves  of  desultory  bom- 
bardments. When  time  hung  particularly  heavy  on  his 
hands,  the  commander  of  the  squadron  would  order  a 
bombardment  of  the  Morro;  and  yet,  notwithstanding 
the  efforts  of  the  Yankees  to  reduce  this  venerable  pile, 
by  casting  at  it  tons  and  tons  of  metal,  after  all  was  over 
it  was  found  to  be  about  as  good  as  ever.* 

So  the  Morro  of  my  first  visit  was  still  the  Morro  of 
my  last:  apparently  unchanged,  except  by  a  coat  of 
whitewash  or  some  visible  attempt  at  cleanliness — of 
which,  having  been  in  Spanish  hands  so  long,  it  stood 
much  in  need. 

If  the  various  bombardments  of  the   Morro  proved 

*  From  Admiral  Sampson's  reports  : 

"  i6th  June. — Bombarded  forts  at  Santiago  to-day,  7 130  a.  m. 
to  10  a.  m.,  and  have  silenced  works  quickly,  without  injury  of 
any  kind,  though  stationed  within  2000  yards. 

"  i6th  June. — Bombarded  forts  for  42  minutes ;  firing  very  ac- 
curate.   The  batteries  were  silenced  completely.    Fleet  not  injured. 

"2d  July.— Bombarded  forts  at  entrance  of  Santiago,  and  also 
Punta  Gorda  battery  inside,  silencing  their  fire." 

Secretary-of-War  Algers  comments : 

"  The  total  result  of  Admiral  Sampson's  shelling  consisted 
in    the    dismounting   of   one    muzzle-loading    brass    cannon,    de- 


HISTORIC   HARBORS   OF   CUBA  41 

anything,  it  was  that  cannon-fire  from  ships  against  a 
rock  fort  perched  upon  a  crag  was  ineflfectual.  Witness, 
also,  the  futihty  of  Admiral  Sampson's  fire  upon  Puerto 
Rico's  Morro  at  San  Juan.  Neither  fortress  was  injured 
to  any  extent ;  but  when  it  came  to  pegging  shot  at  the 
vessels  in  Cervera's  fleet,  all  must  admit,  there  was 
some  damage  done. 

Through  the  channel  which  brave  Hobson  and  his 
seven  companions  tried  to  block  by  sinking  the  "  Merri- 
mac/'  on  the  third  of  June,  1898,  and  which  was  traversed 
by  Cervera's  fleet  in  its  forlorn  dash  for  liberty  just  a 
month  later,  we  sail  into  "  the  finest  natural  harbor 
in  the  world."  Until  you  have  passed  through  that 
channel  and  gained  the  harbor,  you  can  hardly  under- 
stand how  it  was  Cervera  remained  so  long  behind  those 
hills,  as  "  snug  as  a  bug  in  a  rug,"  without  being  dis- 
covered. But  there  he  lay  for  more  than  forty  days, 
secure,  if  not  contented,  before  the  Americans  could 
force  him  out.  And  it  was  not  the  Americans,  then, 
but  the  Spaniards,,  who  sent  poor,  foolish  Cervera  forth 
to  his  doom. 

There  is  room  in  that  harbor  for  several  fleets  to  lie 
without  rubbing  noses,  and  from  on  board  ship  you  may 

scribed  as  a  'very  ancient  pattern/  on  the  battery  east  of 
Morro,  and  in  the  '  damaging '  of  one  of  the  two  modern 
breech-loading  rifles  on  a  naval  mount  at  Punta  Gorda  battery. 
Not  another  gwn  was  found  to  be  injured  or  dismounted.  It 
seems  incredible  that  such  repeated  heavy  bombardments  could 
have  accomplished  so  little.  The  only  real  damage  was  to  a 
non-military  edifice,  a  small  lighthouse,  and,  in  several  places, 
the  picturesque  and  historical  Morro  Castle,  nearly  four  cen- 
turies old,  was  somewhat  marred,  but  not  materially  injured, 
by  the  shots. — From  "The  Spanish-American  War,"  by  R.  A. 
Alger,  Secretary-of-War,  1897-99. 


42         OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

view  the  city,  with  its  oriental  architecture,  its  plaza, 
marine  park,  cathedral  and  sea  of  roofs  disporting 
various  colors — red  predominating — at  just  the  right 
perspective  for  the  best  effect.  There  is  no  other  city 
with  just  the  warmth  of  coloring  that  Santiago  has; 
nor,  perhaps,  with  a  more  intense  warmth  of  atmosphere, 
for  it  appears  an  exotic  always  attractive — from  a  dis- 
tance— and  always  stewing  in  the  heat  of  blazing  sun. 

It  must  not  be  imagined  that  the  Americans,  in  1898, 
were  the  only  ones  to  ''  make  history "  in  Santiago 
harbor;  though  they  put  an  end  to  Spanish  domination 
in  Cuba  through  their  operations  off  its  mouth  and  their 
march  upon  the  city.  Santiago  was  founded  in  15 14, 
or  '15,  by  Diego  Velasquez,  who  had  with  him,  among 
other  distinguished  individuals,  Hernando  Cortes  and 
Bartolome  de  las  Casas,  the  former  of  whom  sailed 
from  this  harbor  for  Mexico,  in  15 19,  having  been  pre- 
ceded by  Grijalva,  from  the  same  port,  the  year  previous. 
The  fortifications  were  soon  begun  and  the  Morro  built; 
but  the  latter  seems  to  have  been  more  ornamental  than 
useful,  having  been  of  no  use  in  repelling  the  attacks  of 
pirates  and  privateers,  who,  in  the  years  1537,  '53,  and 
'92  captured  the  city  and  sacked  it  at  their  leisure. 

One  of  the  most  gallant  of  naval  fights  took  place  in 
this  harbor  between  a  Spanish  and  a  French  privateer, 
which  lasted  two  days,  at  the  end  of  the  second  day  the 
Frenchman  retiring,  crippled,  from  the  combat.  In  1662, 
just  one  hundred  years  before  the  English  took  Havana, 
a  British  force  under  Lord  Winsor  landed  at  Agua- 
dofes,  near  the  Morro,  which  they  captured  by  assault 
and  blew  up,  marched  upon  Santiago,  and  then  marched 
out  again,  with  the  church  bells  of  the  city,  negro  slaves, 
guns,  and  all  the  treasure  they  could  find.     Spain  was 


HISTORIC   HARBORS   OF   CUBA  43 

almost  everybody's  enemy,  those  years,  and  the  Spanish 
colonies  suffered  severely  for  the  sins  of  the  mother  land. 

It  was  for  Spanish  sins,  of  omission  as  well  as  com- 
mission, that  Santiago  suffered  in  1898;  that  Shafter 
landed  troops  at  Daiquiri,  and  marched  upon  the  city, 
while  Sampson  and  the  fleet  kept  watch  and  ward  with- 
out. The  particulars  of  that  brief  campaign  are  too  fresh 
in  the  public  mind  to  demand  more  than  mere  mention  in 
this  connection ;  but  we  cannot  ignore  Las  Guasimas,  El 
Caney,  and  San  Juan,  any  more  than  we  can  the  Morro 
and  Santiago  itself,  for  the  successive  conflicts  at  these 
places  led  up  to  and  opened  the  way  for  the  final  sur- 
render of  both  city  and  castle-fortress. 

Almost  as  niany  volumes  have  been  written  about  this 
invasion  of  Santiago  province  and  discharged  at  an  inof- 
fensive public  as  there  were  cannon-shot  discharged  at 
the  common  enemy,  the  Spaniards.  One  cannot  read  all 
of  them,  but  there  are  a  few  which  should  not  be  ignored, 
such  as  Lodge's  "  War  with  Spain,"  Alger's  "  Spanish- 
American  War,"  and  above  all.  President  Roosevelt's 
vivid  and  racy  "  Rough  Riders."  In  the  last-named  we 
have  the  personal  view  of  the  war  from  a  soldier's  stand- 
point; and,  though  President  Roosevelt  does  not  claim 
that  he  was  ''  alone  in  Cuba,"  nor  won  the  fight  at  San 
Juan  Hill  unaided,  still,  he  took  a  prominent  part  in  that 
memorable  attack.  "  There  were  others,"  also,  and  most 
of  them  have  written  about  their  experiences,  so  it  would 
ill  beseem  me  to  go  over  the  ground ;  though,  in  all  humil- 
ity perhaps  I  may  be  permitted  to  mention  the  salient 
features  of  the  invasion.  This,  indeed,  I  have  done 
already,  for  the  campaign,  as  intimated,  was  as  brief  as 
it  was  vigorous,  and  was  over  almost  before  it  began. 
Not  before  many  a  gallant  soldier  lost  his  life,  however, 


44         OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

and  many  another  sizzled  in  tropic  sunshine  and  soaked 
in  torrential  downpours  in  the  trenches,  while  the  dreary 
weeks  went  by,  and  the  Spaniards  held  out.  "  What  was 
it  begun  for,  to  be  so  soon  done  for  ?  "  might  be  asked  of 
this  campaign ;  and  the  answer  would  be :  Begun  for 
the  Cubans,  and  done  for  the  Spaniards.  At  least,  they 
were  "  done  for  "  at  its  ending — '*  done  brown,"  and  for 
all  time,  so  far  as  their  rule  in  America  was  concerned. 

The  visitor  to  Havana  will  be  asked,  perchance,  to 
**  Remember  the  Maine  " ;  in  Santiago  he  will  be  im- 
portuned by  the  colored  cabbies  about  the  hotels  to 
remember  San  Juan  and  El  Caney — also  to  take  a  trip 
thither  in  their  conveyances.  Don't  bother  with  them, 
if  the  weather  is  fine,  but  take  a  walk  out  there  at  early 
morning.  San  Juan  is  the  nearer  to  Santiago  of  the  two 
historic  places,  scant  two  miles,  in  fact. 

On  the  way  you  pass  the  "  surrender  tree,"  where  Gen- 
eral Shafter  met  the  Spanish  General,  Toral,  and  ar- 
ranged the  terms  of  capitulation.  It  is  a  ceiba,  but  a 
small  one,  and  would  hardly  have  sufficed  to  protect  the 
bulky  form  of  the  doughty  American  General  in  a  thunder 
storm.  This  fact  was  impressed  upon  me,  because  I  was 
caught  in  one,  and  compelled  to  take  shelter  beneath  the 
branches  of  that  historic  silk-cotton.  It  also  occurs  to 
me  that,  if  the  rain  fell  during  those  July  days  in  1898 
as  it  fell  on  me  that  afternoon  in  May,  1904,  the  boys  in 
the  trenches  must  have  suffered  from  moisture;  and  it 
certainly  did,  for  they  were  there  in  the  height  of  the 
rainy  season,  which,  when  I  was  there  last,  had  hardly 
commenced. 

I  understood,  also,  how  it  was  our  gallant  soldiers  did 
not  go  forward  any  faster,  for  when  I  essayed  to  walk 
to  the  city,  after  the  shower,  I  slipped  back  at  least  two 


HISTORIC   HARBORS   OF   CUBA  45 

steps  for  every  one  ahead.  Progression,  in  such  circum- 
stances, and  especially  when  it  is  hindered  by  hostile 
Spaniards  armed  with  Mausers  (and  expert  Mausers  they 
were,  too)  would  be  rather  difficult,  not  to  say  impossible. 
There  were  also  the  barbed-wire  entanglements,  and  the 
effluvia  from  the  Spanish  bodies,  living  and  dead,  to  be 
overcome ;  so,  on  the  whole,  the  boys  had  very  good  rea- 
sons for  not  "  waltzing  "  into  Santiago  right  off  after  they 
had  taken  Kettle  Hill,  San  Juan,  and  Caney. 

From  reading  President  Roosevelt's  interesting  narra- 
tive, one  might  believe  it  was  only  necessary  for  him  to 
give  a  whoop  and  to  say  "  Come  on,  boys,"  for  the  whole 
thing  to  be  accomplished  in  a  jiffy.  But  it  wasn't  done 
that  way,  for,  though  the  soldiers  whooped  "  to  beat  the 
band,"  the  stolid  Spaniards  didn't  "  scare  worth  a  cent," 
but  remained  right  there  for  quite  a  while,  behind  the 
trenches  and  block-houses,  and  varied  the  monotony  of 
things  by  boring  holes  in  the  boys  with  their  Mausers. 
This  is  the  story  told  me  by  one  who  was  '*  on  the  spot," 
and  it  coincides  with  other  authentic  narratives,  so  it 
will  have  to  ''  go,"  despite  tales  to  the  contrary.* 

There  is  nothing  now  at  San  Juan  to  remind  one  of  the 
fierce  charge  of  the  Americans  up  the  hill,  save  the 
monument  erected  on  its  summit,  and  the  remains  of  the 
trenches,  the  block-house,  etc.  The  intervening  seasons 
have  woven  a  web  of  verdure  over  the  slopes,  the  Cuban 
agriculturists — albeit  somewhat  slow  to  forgather  for 
labor — have  tilled  the  fields  around,  and  the  whole  scene 
is  bathed  in  an  atmosphere  of  peace.  When  I  was  there, 
one  afternoon  in    May,  a  care-free    mocking-bird  was 

*  Roosevelt  and  his  Rough  Riders  "  did  not  join  the  in- 
infantry  in  its  charge  on  San  Juan  blockhouse  and  that  portion 
to  the  left  of  the  Santiago  road  known  as  San  Juan,  but  made  their 


46         OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

trilling  its  melodious  song  in  a  thicket  near  the  hill-top, 
and  a  careless  negro  boy  was  whistling  aimlessly  while 
seated  at  the  base  of  the  monument.  We  three  were  the 
only  living  beings  then  in  sight,  save  for  some  distant 
object  like  a  scarecrow,  which  I  knew  to  be  a  native, 
plodding  behind  a  pair  of  oxen  hitched  to  a  crooked  stick, 
with  which  he  was  scratching  the  surface  of  the  soil. 

Enwrapped  in  sweet  solitude  was  the  renowned  San 
Juan  Hill,  and  it  was  difficult  to  imagine,  looking  down 
the  deserted  slopes,  that  it  had  ever  swarmed  with  the 
gallant  Boys  in  Blue,  yelling  "  for  all  they  were  worth," 
fighting  like  the  heroes  that  they  were,  and  collectively 
working  up  the  war-scene  that  made  their  Lieutenant 
Colonel  President  of  these  United  States,  and  their 
Colonel  a  Major  General  of  its  armies !  Greater  rewards 
for  shorter  service,  perhaps  no  men  ever  received ;  and 
yet,  someone  has  declared  republics  to  be  ungrateful! 

Not  all  the  fighters  at  San  Juan,  nor  at  El  Caney,  over 
there  where  the  ruined  block-house  stands,  received 
rewards  commensurate  with  their  deeds,  because,  merely, 
we  could  make  them  all  Presidents  or  Major  Generals ; 
but  then,  they  have  the  privilege  of  writing  books,  which 
is  a  noble  one,  though  devoid  of  substantial  remuneration. 

assault  on  that  part  of  San  Juan  ridge  to  the  right  of  the  road 
after  San  Juan  blockhouse  and  the  trenches  to  the  left  of  the  road 
had  been  taken  by  the  infantry  and  part  of  the  cavalry  brigade." 
"  In  spite  of  the  calamitous  newspaper  reports  to  the  con- 
trary and  the  statements  of  amateur  soldiers  accompanying  the 
5th  corps,  there  was  never  a  day  at  Santiago  when  the  troops  at 
the  front  were  not  supplied  with  the  three  most  important  com- 
ponents of  the  army  ration — coffee  (and  sugar),  bacon,  and  hard 
bread,  although  most  of  them  threw  away  their  haversacks  con- 
taining three  days'  rations,  as  they  went  into  action." — R.  A. 
Alger's  "  Spanish-American  War." 


HISTORIC   HARBORS   OF   CUBA  47 

All,  or  nearly  all,  the  Rough  Riders  are  mentioned  by 
name  in  the  book  their  leader  wrote,  so  they  are  sure  to 
go  down  to  immortal  fame  with  their  deeds  blazoned  on 
a  tablet  more  enduring  than  brass  or  bronze. 

The  quaint  Indian  village  of  El  Caney,  where  Ludlow, 
Lawton,  and  Chaffee,  humble  heroes  all  three,  performed 
the  all  but  impossible  task  of  taking  a  strongly  fortified 
post  with  obsolete  artillery  using  black  powder,  followed 
up  with  rifle  and  bayonet,  is  a  more  satisfactory  place  to 
visit  than  San  Juan,  owing  to  the  larger  number  of  its 
attractions.  Here,  where  the  first  brave  Americans  to 
enter  the  fort  found  it  '*  floored  with  dead  Spaniards," 
the  fighting  was  stubborn  and  protracted ;  but  the  enemy 
had  to  give  way,  all  the  same,  and  fled  the  place  in  a 
hurry.  However,  others  have  told  the  story  better  than 
it  can  be  retold  now,  the  enemy  having  departed  and  the 
gallant  Americans  having  gone  back  to  their  homes. 

Returning  to  the  city,  we  find  it  little  changed  from 
what  it  was  nearly  twenty  years  ago,  except  in  the  matter 
of  cleanliness.  The  people  are  the  same,  but  the  city  is 
cleaner,  every  important  street  being  swept  and  dusted 
every  morning  before  breakfast,  while  some  attention 
is  paid  to  domestic  sanitation.  There  is  still  a  scant  water 
supply  and  no  sewerage  system,  even  after  the  much- 
vaunted  doings  of  General  Wood,  when  he  was  a  dweller 
in  the  palace  and  had  everything  his  own  way,  and  every- 
thing to  do  with  it  as  he  liked.  Still,  there  is  no  longer 
the  specter  of  "  Yellow  Jack  "  overhanging  the  city,  as  of 
yore ;  though,  doubtless,  he  is  somewhere  in  hiding, 
awaiting  his  opportunity — which  will  come,  probably, 
when  the  sewerage  system  is  actually  installed. 

There  should  be  ample  supply  of  water  in  Santiago, 
from  the  springs  and    mountain    streams    in    the    sur- 


48         OUR  WEST  INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

rounding  country ;  but  there  is  not,  and  such  supply  as 
there  is  cannot  be  depended  upon,  being  arbitrarily  shut 
off  at  the  time  it  is  most  desired.  The  attractions  here 
are  the  plaza,  which  is  in  no  way  remarkable ;  the  gov- 
ernor's palace,  of  which  the  same  may  be  said ;  the  loca- 
tion, on  a  hillside  above  the  magnificent  bay,  which,  as  it 
was  a  gift  of  God,  is,  of  course,  beyond  all  praise. 

Colonel  Roosevelt  wrote  of  Santiago,  in  his  book: 
**  The  surroundings  of  the  city  are  very  grand.  The  cir- 
cling mountains  rise  sheer  and  high.  The  plains  are 
threaded  by  rapid,  winding  brooks  and  are  dotted  here 
and  there  with  quaint  villages,  curiously  picturesque  fro.n 
their  combining  traces  of  an  outworn  old-world  civiliza- 
tion with  new  and  raw  barbarism.  The  graceful,  feath- 
ery bamboos  rise  by  the  water's  edge,  and  elsewhere,  even 
on  the  mountain-crests,  where  the  soil  is  wet  and  rank 
enough ;  and  the  splendid  royal  and  cocoanut  palms 
tower  high  above  the  matted  jungle." 

That  is  a  presentment  of  Santiago  and  its  environment 
**  in  a  nutshell,"  the  swift,  all-embracing  glance  of  the 
trained  observer;  and  nothing  more  need  be  added.  I 
said  there  are  few  attractions  in  Santiago,  but  there  are 
several  spots  that  one  should  view,  and  one  of  these  is  an 
unwholesome  mud-hole  down  by  the  slaughter  house, 
where  the  unfortunate  filibusters  captured  with  the  *'  Vir- 
ginius,"  in  1873,  were  massacred.  There  has  long  been  a 
tablet  there  to  mark  the  spot,  but  General  Wood  affixed 
another  of  bronze ;  though  he  did  not  fill  up  the  malarious 
mudhole ;  or  if  he  did,  another  has  taken  its  place,  and 
it  is  decidedly  unsafe  to  linger  there  long  enough  to  read 
the  inscriptions. 

The  Morro,  of  course,  will  demand  a  visit,  and  as  there 
is  a  good  road  thither  all    the  way,  it    should   not   be 


*     c-    c       •  , 


,» •       c  ,  ac  c 


HISTORIC  HARBORS   OF  CUBA  49 

omitted  from  one's  itinerary.  Neither  should  the  Cayo 
Smith,  near  which  the  "  Reina  Mercedes  "  and  the  "  Mer- 
rimac  ".  were  sunk ;  nor  the  iron  mines,  if  permission  can 
be  obtained  to  journey  over  the  private  railroad  that  runs 
from  the  big  iron  pier  into  the  country.  It  is  said  that, 
by  a  very  strange  chance,  some  of  our  war-ships  engaged 
in  bombarding  the  Morro  and  Santiago,  at  the  time  of  the 
Cervera  affair,  were  belted  with  armor  made  from  the 
iron  from  Santiago's  mines.  It  may  have  seemed  like 
bringing  coals  to  Newcastle ;  but  this  sort  our  sea-fighters 
heaped  upon  the  Spaniards'  heads,  as  it  were.  And  there 
is  copper,  any  amount  of  it,  in  the  mountains  across  the 
bay,  the  Indians  having  mined  it,  and  the  Spaniards  after 
them,  before  the  United  States  were  born  and  christened. 
When  I  went  up  to  view  the  mines  of  Cobre,  situated 
about  twelve  miles  from  the  harbor's  further  shore,  it 
was  seated  upon  a  flatcar  drawn  by  mules,  with  only  an 
umbrella  between  me  and  the  blazing  sky  overhead,  that 
the  journey  was  performed.  I  do  not  desire  to  repeat  the 
performance,  though  the  mines  were  worth  something  to 
see ,  and  in  the  chapel  of  Cobre  village  I  had  a  glimpse 
of  the  famous  "  Virgen  de  la  Caridad,"  who  (or  which) 
once  lost  her  (its)  head,  a  few  years  ago,  and  with  it 
thirty  thousand  dollars'  worth  of  precious  jewels  with 
which  she  (or  it)  was  at  that  time  adorned.  When  I  saw 
her,  however,  she  had  recovered  her  head,  and  was 
resplendent  in  jewels  again;  though  they  really  appeared 
to  be  paste.  This  Virgin  is  an  ancient  one,  her 
sponsors  owning  up  to  four  hundred  years,  as  she  is 
said  to  have  belonged  originally  to  a  renowned  cavalier, 
Alonzo  de  Ojeda,  who  gave  her  to  an  Indian  chief,  early 
in  the  sixteenth  century  escaping  from  whom  she  found 
her  way  to  the  Bay  of  Nipe,  in  some  mysterious  manner, 


50         OUR  WEST  INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

where  she  was  discovered  by  some  Spaniards  floating 
aimlessly  about  in  a  frail  canoe.  They  rescued  and 
brought  her  to  Cobre,  where,  in  gratitude  for  her  rehabili- 
tation, she  performed  many  miraculous  cures,  and  inci- 
dentally acquired  a  fortune  in  pearls  and  precious  stones, 
which  some  sacrilegious  thief  appropriated 

I  did  not  think,  when  I  was  at  Santiago  in  1887,  that, 
following  down  the  coast  from  the  harbor-mouth,  I 
should  at  a  time  then  in  the  future  behold  upon  the 
shore  the  wrecks  of  Spanish  war-ships  destroyed  by 
Yankee  cannon-fire ;  nor  did  I  hope  to,  either.  But  there 
they  are,  or  were,  rusted  heaps  of  twisted  iron,  scattered 
all  the  way  from  Nima  Nima  and  Acerraderos,  only  a 
few  miles  from  the  harbor-entrance,  to  Rio  Turquino, 
forty-five  miles  away,  where  at  last  the  "  Colon  "  was 
beached.  This  southern  coast  westward  from  the  Morro 
is  bordered  by  the  Sierras,  with  majestic  Pico  Turquino 
dominating  all,  more  than  8000  feet  in  height. 

Before  setting  out  on  the  trip  along-shore,  climb  to  the 
crest  of  the  hill  on  which  Santiago  is  built  and  take  a 
parting  view  of  the  city,  the  mountains,  and  the  bay  be- 
tween the  two,  for  it  may  not  be  your  privilege  to  behold 
another  like  it.  Beyond  the  far-sloping  roofs  of  red  and 
sun-burnt  tiles,  covering  walls  in  every  hue,  which  stretch 
from  crest  of  hill  to  water's  edge,  lies  the  harbor,  its 
expanse  of  deepest  blue  ringed  round  with  green  and 
golden  hills,  bathed  in  the  sunshine  of  this  tropic  isle. 

Mountains  are  in  sight  all  the  way  westward  to  Cape 
Cruz,  behind  which  lies  the  deep  gulf  of  Guacanaybo,  and 
the  Cauto  River,  largest  stream  in  Cuba,  which  waters  a 
vast  extent  of  cattle  country,  lying  between  the  Cuba 
railway  and  the  Sierra  Maestra  range  of  mountains 
along  the  south  coast.    The  chief  city  of  this  large  and 


HISTORIC  HARBORS  OF  CUBA  51 

fertile  valley  of  the  Canto  is  Manzanillo,  which  has  an 
immense  trade,  owing  to  the  vast  resources  of  the  region, 
but  is  hot  and  very  unhealthy.  It  was  at  Manzanillo  that 
the  last  shot  of  the  Spanish-American  war  was  fired,  news 
of  the  peace  protocol  arriving  just  as  several  Yankee  gun- 
boats had  made  ready  to  shell  the  town. 

Twenty-five  miles  inland  from  Manzanillo  lies  the  old 
town  of  Bayamo,  isolated  from  the  coast  and  railroads 
in  the  center  of  the  great  basin  drained  by  the  Cauto. 
Here  took  place  the  Republican  uprising  of  1868,  here  (it 
is  said)  the  Cuban  troops  actually  came  in  contact  with 
the  Spaniards  and  won  a  sort  of  victory;  and  here,  in 
the  year  1835  was  born  Don  Tomas  Estrada  Palma,  first 
President  of  Cuba.  Bayamo  has  often  served  as  a  place 
of  refuge  for  the  coast  people,  and  it  vies  in  picturesque- 
ness  and  respectability  with  Trinidad,  on  the  coast  of 
Santa  Clara  province.  Trinidad  has  a  poor  harbor  and  is 
yet  isolated  from  the  great  centers ;  but  it  is  a  charming 
place  of  residence,  with  fine  mountain  scenery,  and  is  one 
of  the  oldest  towns  in  Cuba,  having  been  founded  m  1513.. 
only  two  years  after  the  first  settlement  was  made  at 
Baracoa.  Here  Hernando  Cortes  outfitted  his  expedition 
in  1 5 19,  at  which  time  it  was  the  residence  of  many  cava- 
liers who  afterward  became  famous  in  the  conquest  of 
Mexico. 

Between  Manzanillo  and  Trinidad  lie  the  "  Gardens  of 
the  Queen,"  or  chains  of  coral  cays,  discovered  and 
named  by  Columbus  on  his  second  voyage  to  America. 
But  these  cays  are  avoided  by  the  steamers,  surrounded 
as  they  are  by  reefs  and  shoals,  and  land  is  quite  lost 
sight  of  in  crossing  the  gulf,  the  Trinidad  mountains 
then  leaping  out,  a  break  in  the  coast  hidicating  the 
entrance  to  Cienfuegos.     Founded  in  the  last  century, 


52         OUR  WEST  INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

Cienfuegos  can  hardly  be  said  to  be  historic;  but  it  is 
better  than  that,  it  is  successful.  It  is  the  great  sugar 
city  of  the  south  coast,  and  is  similarly  situated  to  San- 
tiago, though  without  the  beautiful  environment  that  the 
latter  has. 

It  is  tiie  original  "  City  of  the  Hundred  Fires," 
Cienfuegos^  the  Spanish  of  it,  being  derived  from  a 
remark  of  Columbus  when  he  entered  the  beautiful  bay 
and  beheld  the  flashing  Hghts  of  myriad  fire-beetles 
along  shore.  This  city  has  shared  in  the  renewed  pros- 
perity of  Cuba,  and  is  flourishing  as  never  before.  Its 
plaza  is  one  of  the  finest  in  the  island,  and  though  situ- 
ated in  a  flat  country,  with  heights  only  at  a  distance, 
Cienfuegos  has  a  fair  reputation  for  salubrity.  Not  far 
from  the  city  are  the  falls  of  the  Habanilla,  called  the 
''  Cuban  Minnehaha,"  though  still  in  their  setting  of 
virgin  verdure. 

Beyond  Cienfuegos  is  a  wild  coast  country,  a  sea 
dotted  with  coral  cays  intervening  between  it  and  the 
Isle  of  Pines,  north  of  which  is  Batabano,  the  original 
Havana,  but  now  down-at-the-heel  and  hardly  holding 
its  own.  Away  westward  stretches  the  Pinar  del  Rio 
province,  with  infrequent  harbors,  and  southward  the 
Archipelago  of  Los  Canarreos,  the  old-time  cruising 
ground  of  sea-robbers  and  the  grave  of  many  a  treasure 
galleon. 


Ill 

IN  CUBA'S  CAPITAL,  AND  ROUNDABOUT 

The  entrance  to  Havana  harbor  —  The  Punta  and  the  Morro  — 
Havana's  dead-and-buried  past  —  The  Havana  of  yesterday 
and  to-day  —  What  the  Americans  have  accomplished  —  A 
horrible  condition  of  affairs  —  Yellow  fever  practically 
abolished  —  Contaminated  wells  and  open  waterways  — 
Havana's  pure  and  adequate  water  supply  —  The  springs  of 
the  Almendares  River  —  A  reconstructed  city  —  The  innumer- 
able hacks  and  guagnas  —  Quaint  old  Spanish  calks  and 
interiors  —  In  the  reeking,  malodorous  days  of  Spanish 
domination  —  Havana's  lack  of  good  hotels  and  need  of  bet- 
ter ones  —  Objects  of  interest  in  and  around  Havana  —  The 
great  cathedral  and  its  connection  with  Christopher  Col- 
umbus —  Memorials  of  ancient  Havana  —  Fragments  of  the 
city  walls  —  The  garrote  in  the  penitentiary  —  Marianao, 
Jesus  del  Monte,  the  Cerro,  and  the  Vedado  —  The  tropical 
Almendares  River  —  Colon  cemetery  and  the  captain-gen- 
eral's gardens  —  Tobacco  culture  and  the  Vuelta  Abajo 
region  —  What  may  be  seen  in  Guana  jay  and  San  Antonio 
de  los  Bafios  —  The  disappearing  rivers  and  blind  fishes  of 
Cuba  —  Batabano  and  the  Isle  of  Pines  —  An  island  of 
romance  and  mystery. 

CUBA  has  put  her  dead  past  behind  her;  so  has 
Havana.  The  dead  past  must  have  been 
deodorized  and  buried  by  Havana,  for  one  can 
no  longer  smell  it.  In  times  agone  no  seafarer 
through  that  narrow  gateway  between  the  Morro  and 
the  Punta  needed  a  pilot  into  the  harbor  of  Havana, 
for  he  had  only  to   follow  his   nose.     We   may   safely 

53 


54         OUR  WEST  INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

venture,  now,  where  of  old  even  "  angels  might  fear  to 
tread  "  perchance  they  caught  a  whiff  of  the  malodorous 
gales  off-shore,  which  then  were  pestilential  beyond 
belief. 

Morro  Castle,  that  grim  and  frowning  fortress  at  the 
harbor-mouth,  was  begun  sometime  in  the  first  half  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  and  the  city  that  lies  opposite  in 
1519;  but  the  former  was  not  finished  when,  in  1585, 
galliard  Sir  Francis  Drake  came  a-sailing  these  waters, 
and  the  latter  is  not  finished  yet.  Indeed,  it  has  but 
recently  entered  upon  a  new  career,  which  is  destined  to 
cast  that  of  the  old  Havana  into  the  shade. 

That  new  career  was  begun  about  five  years  ago, 
when  the  Spaniards  departed  and  the  Americanos  took 
temporary  possession  of  the  city  and  the  island ;  and  it 
was  the  same  old  Havannah  of  the  sixteenth  century 
that  greeted  me  when,  twenty-three  years  ago,  I  touched 
in,  and  passed  a  sweltering  day  and  reeking  night  in 
city  and  harbor.  The  universal  enemy,  at  that  time, 
was  "  Yellow  Jack,"  who  held  sway  at  least  six  months 
in  the  year.  Whosoever  felt  his  polluted  breath  gen- 
erally succumbed,  and  off  the  Cuban  coast  we  had  buried 
a  fine  young  man,  a  victim  of  his ;  so  it  was  with  rather 
gloomy  apprehensions  that  we  entered  Havana  harbor 
and  sniffed  the  smells  borne  to  us  from  the  shore.  Not 
even  old  Cologne  could  boast  a  more  varied  assortment 
of  evil  odors,  nor  a  more  malefic  compound  in  the  aggre- 
gate, than  the  Havana  of  those  days  before  the  war. 

And  it  was  the  same  when,  as  special  commissioner 
for  the  Columbian  Exposition,  accredited  to  the  Gover- 
nor General  of  Cuba,  I  visited  Havana,  in  1891.  Nearly 
ten  years  had  elapsed  since  my  previous  visit,  yet  no 
improvement    had    been    made    in    sanitary    conditions. 


IN.  CUBA'S   CAPITAL  55 

They  had  long  since  reached  their  worst  stage  possible, 
at  which  point  they  remained  until  the  advent  of  the 
Americanos. 

What  has  taken  place  since  the  Americans  took 
charge,  less  than  five  years  ago,  is  known  to  all,  for  our 
countrymen  did  not  hide  their  light  under  a  bushel. 
They  let  in  the  light  and  the  air,  as  well,  so  that  the' 
Havana  of   "  before  the  war"  no  longer  exists. 

Approaching  Havana  from  any  direction,  even  from 
the  leeward  (as  one  generally  does  approach  it  in  entering 
the  harbor),  one  is  no  longer  saluted  by  the  odors  of  an 
uncleanly  city.  One  would  hardly  suspect  the  existence 
of  the  acres  and  acres  of  filth,  accumulated  during  cen- 
turies in  the  harbor,  were  it  not  now  and  then  stirred 
up  by  external  agency. 

This  is  only  occasionally  done,  however,  and  the  placid 
surface  of  the  vast  cid  de  sac  reveals  no  evidence  of  the 
potential  evil  it  contains.  It  is  recognized  that  the 
harbor  holds  a  perpetual  menace  to  the  city's  health, 
which  may  become  actual  and  terrible  should  the  vast 
acreage  of  sediment  be  exposed  to  the  sun,  and  the  next 
great  work  of  the  authorities  will  doubtless  be  the  open- 
ing of  another  outlet  to  the  sea.  At  present  the  only 
opening  is  that  guarded  by  old  Morro ;  but  it  would  seem 
perfectly  feasible  to  break  through  the  low-lying  land 
barrier  between  the  harbor  and  the  suburb  of  Guana- 
bacoa. 

When  the  Spaniards  first  landed  here  they  found  a 
beautiful,  eligible  site  for  a  carcnage — a  smoothly 
receding  beach,  guarded  by  coral  rocks,  upon  which  they 
could  careen  their  vessels  for  repairs  when  necessary. 
This  beach  was  long  ago  covered  with  masonry  and  no 
longer  exists  as  a  careening  place ;    but  on  or  near  its 


56         OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

site  we  find  the  custom  house  of  the  present  day.  At  a 
Httle  distance  away  stands  a  templete,  or  chapel,  erected 
near  the  original  ceiba  tree  beneath  which  the  first  mass 
was  held  nearly  400  years  ago. 

Beginning  near  this  point,  the  city  rapidly  spread 
itself  towards  the  hills,  such  as  "  Jesus  del  Monte," 
about  200  feet  high,  near  which  stands  the  picturesque 
castle-fort,  Atares;  but  the  vast  majority  of  the  inhab- 
itants resided,  as  they  reside  to-day,  on  a  plain  lying  only 
four  feet  above  sea-level. 

The  harbor  has  an  extreme  length  of  about  three 
miles,  with  a  breadth  of  a  mile  and  a  half  in  its  broadest 
part,  while  its  entrance,  opposite  the  Morro,  is  only  400 
yards  across.  Anciently,  it  was  surrounded  by  mangrove 
swamps  which  have  been  *'  reclaimed  "  by  dumping  in 
the  street  refuse  and  garbage.  In  their  original  state 
these  swamps  were  first-class  breeders  of  malarial  poison, 
and  they  were  hardly  improved  by  the  Spanish  process 
of  reclamation.  Then  again,  the  scant  soil  covered  a 
permeable  rock  foundation,  into  which  the  foul  liquids, 
when  emptied,  readily  disappeared ;  and  as  "  out  of 
eight  out  of  mind  "  is  a  proverb  with  the  hai)py-go- 
lucky  Spaniards,  they  gave  themselves  no  concern  as  to 
where  the  sewage  of  their  growing  city  went.  The 
sinks  and  excavations  in  the  more  solid  rock  back  from 
the  shore  became  filled  with  polluted  liquids,  of  course; 
but  the  summer  rains  and  occasional  high  tides  sometimes 
washed  their  contents  into  the  bay.  Later  on  abortive 
attempts  were  made  looking  to  a  complete  sewerag*^ 
system ;  but  even  to-day  none  such  exists. 

When  the  Americans  came  here  they  found  a  horrible 
condition  of  affairs  in  matters  of  sanitation,  and  it  is  to 
their  credit  that  they  almost  performed  the  impossible 


IN   CUBA'S   CAPITAL  57 

task  of  cleansing  the  city.  It  is  actually  as  clean  as  it 
is  possible  to  make  it,  without  turning  it  inside  out  and 
^.  upside  down,  and  expending  millions  in  the  work  of 
"    reclamation. 

Even  the  Spaniards  and  Cubans  admit  that  the 
Americanos  have  improved  their  city  vastly.  They  com- 
placently regard  the  wonderful  work  as,  somehow,  a 
miracle  of  Nature,  aided  by  Providence — and  themselves 
— at  which  the  Americans  assisted.  It  *'  riled  "  them 
awfully  to  be  told,  in  effect,  that  they  had  been  heedless 
of  the  simplest  laws  of  sanitation,  and  they  bitterly 
resented  the  inspection  and  consequent  disinfection  of 
their  houses.  But  the  great  and  good  work  went  on, 
nevertheless,  and  to-day  it  is  continued  by  the  Cubans^ 
along  the  lines  laid  out  by  their  teachers. 

Every  morning  at  daylight,  or  promptly  at  five  o'clock, 
I  heard  the  chatter  and  the  clatter  of  a  band  of  Cuban 
*'  White  Wings,"  carefully  sweeping  up  the  garbage  in 
the  Prado,  and  I  knew,  from  the  chatter  and  the  clatter 
in  other  streets,  that  the  process  was  going  on  else- 
where— all  over  the  city.  These  men  were  closely  fol- 
lowed by  carts,  which,  still  with  lighted  lanterns  beneath 
the  axle  (showing  that  they  were  sent  out  early  to  the 
work)  conveyed  the  sweepings  to  the  dock,  whence  they 
were  carried  on  lighters  far  out  beyond  the  Morro  and 
dropped  into  the  sea.  There  is  no  more  dumping  of  gar- 
bage into  the  harbor ;  there  are  no  longer  any  evil  odors 
drifting  across  the  city,  eddying  into  the  streets  and  set- 
tling into  courts  so  solidly  that,  of  old,  they  could  almost 
be  cut  with  a  knife. 

It  cannot  be  expected  of  the  natives  that  they  will 
change  their  costumbres — their  ingrained  habits — and 
become  personally  and  individually  what  they  have  been 


58  OUR   WEST   INDIAN    NEIGHBORS       • 

forced  to  become  as  a  civic  body ;  but,  at  least,  they  have 
been  impressed  with  the  advantages  of  cleanhness,  so 
far  as  their  city  is  concerned.  In  the  work  of  reclamation 
the  Americans  were  aided  by  the  situation  of  Havana 
somewhat,  but  chiefly  by  the  abundance  and  purity  of  its 
water  supply. 

More  than  40,000,000  gallons  of  the  purest  water  are 
delivered  daily  in  Havana  from  the  springs  of  the  Al- 
mendares  River,  situated  about  nine  miles  distant  from 
the  city.  The  Almendares  is  itself  a  beautiful  stream, 
which  reaches  the  sea  less  than  four  miles  from  the 
Morro.  It  is  bordered  by  a  picturesque  country,  contain- 
ing royal  palms,  bananas — in  fact,  all  kinds  of  tropical 
vegetation — and  its  copious  springs,  gushing  forth  in  an 
attractive  gorge,  are  frequently  resorted  to  by  the 
Havanese  when  on  recreation  bent.  They  are  reached  by 
the  *'  United  Railways  of  Havana,"  which  maintains  an 
excellent  service  of  four  trains  each  way  daily. 

After  its  wells  had  become  contcminated,  Havana  dug 
a  ditch  from  the  Almendares  springs  of  the  "  Vento," 
and  brought  the  water  to  the  city.  This  was  more  than 
three  hundred  years  ago,  and  :ii  ;:i failing  supply  has 
been  maintained  ever  cince.  At  first,  however,  (and,  as 
well,  during  centuries  of  Spanish  domination  in  Cuba) 
this  purest  of  waters  flowed  mainly  through  an  open 
ditch,  into  which  drained  the  sewage  of  the  suburbs, 
through  other  ditches  and  polluted  streams.  The  inhab- 
itants along  the  way  not  only  took  tribute  of  the  water  as 
it  passed,  but  bathed  themselves,  their  horses,  and  their 
cattle  in  it;  while  dead  dogs  and  cats,  and  sometimes 
human  corpses,  were  found  floating  therein.  Then  mas- 
sive aqueducts  were  constructed  of  the  substantial  ma- 
sonry for  which  the  Spaniards  are  famous,  by  which  the 


IN   CUBA'S   CAPITAL  59 

city  was  partially  supplied.  Now,  it  is  claimed,  there  is 
an  inexhaustible  supply  for  every  purpose.  Generally 
►speaking  there  is  great  risk  to  health  in  drinking  the 
water  furnished  in  tropical  cities ;  but  it  would  seem  that 
Havana  must  be  considered  an  exception. 

With  this  abundant  flow  of  purest,  softest  water  cours- 
ing through  the  mains,  permeating  every  dwelling  of 
importance,  flushing  the  gutters,  cleansing  the  streets 
and  squares,  and  cooling  the  air,  Havana  has  become  in 
a  sense  revivified,  even  regenerated.  And,  as  all  the  day 
long  (with  the  exception  of  a  few  hours  in  the  morning) 
a  strong  breeze  sweeps  the  city  from  the  sea,  and  the 
nights  are  always  cool,  there  are  many  hours  in  which  one 
may  take  rest  and  obtain  real  recreation,  in  Havana. 

At  present,  it  has  been  remarked,  Havana  and  San- 
tiago are  enjoying  a  miraculous  immunity  from  yellow 
fever;  but  an  epidemic  awaits  them  both  when,  their 
polluted  soils,  surcharged  as  they  are,  shall  be  excavated 
for  the  long-promised,  much-vaunted  sewer  systems, 
which  are  to  forever  rid  them  of  danger.  Then  at  least 
one  terrible  wave  of  devastation  will  sweep  over  each  city 
w^hich  may  make  up  for  all  the  years  of  exemption  it  has 
enjoyed  during  the  reign  of  superficial  cleanliness. 

The  greatest  improvements  the  ante-bellum  visitor 
will  notice  are  in  the  streets,  squares,  and  parks.  The 
menace  of  yellow  fever  having  been  removed,  the  visitor 
may  yield  himself  to  the  enjoyment  of  the  many  places  of 
recreation  in  the  city  and  its  suburbs.  The  most  promi- 
nent feature  of  Havana's  recreative  system  is,  of  course, 
the  Prado,  which  bisects  the  city,  adorned  with  palms, 
statues,  music  stands,  and  overflowing  with  a  wealth  of 
tropical  vegetation.  It  was  thought  perfect  many  years 
ago,  it  certainly  has  nearly  reached  perfection  since  our 


6o         OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

engineers  opened  it  out  to  the  shore  and  bestowed  upon 
the  Havanese  the  blessings  of  the  "  Malacon,"  which 
overlooks  the  harbor  entrance,  the  Morro,  and  the  open 
sea. 

"  Reconstruido  en  1^02,"  is  the  inscription  on  a  plate 
of  bronze  set  up  near  the  Central  Square,  or 
'*  Parque  Isabel,"  by  former  Governor  Wood ;  and 
reconstruido,  renovated,  regenerated,  might  truthfully 
be  said  of  all  parts  of  the  city,  touched  by  the  magic 
wand  of  the  far-sighted,  self-sacrificing  Americanos. 
Many  of  the  sacrifices  made  by  Americans  may  have  been 
(probably  were)  unintentional ;  but  the  fact  remains  that, 
while  individual  enterprises  have  failed,  and  personal 
endeavor  has  been  inadequately  rewarded,  the  Cubans 
have  benefited  from  the  push  and  energy  of  their  neigh- 
bors from  the  United  States. 

The  Americans  here,  many  of  them,  are  feeling  the 
heavy  hand  that  invariably  is  laid  upon  the  pioneer. 
Among  the  pioneers  in  a  direction  tending  toward  the 
highest  morality  are  the  leaders  in  the  movement  for 
establishing  in  Havana  that  noble  institution,  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association.  They  have  already  broken 
ground  and  will  soon  commence  the  work  which  has 
proved  so  beneficent  in  Puerto  Rico  and  the  Philippines. 

There  are  a  few  notable  successes,  such,  for  example, 
as  the  great  Cuba  Railway  and  the  electric  traction 
company  of  the  capital.  In  no  other  respect  has  Havana 
advanced  so  much  as  in  its  urban  and  suburban  communi- 
cation. When  I  was  here  before,  the  traveler  had  to 
depend  upon  the  giiagiias,  or  broken-down  omnibuses, 
and  the  equally  obsolescent  hacks.  Both  vehicles  are 
still  in  evidence  and  evidently  well  patronized ;  but  in 
addition    we    have    well-equipped    electric    cars.     They 


IN   CUBA'S   CAPITAL  6i 

pervade  the  city  now,  whereas  in  former  times  there  were 
means  of  rapid  communication  between  points  within 

and  outside.  Many  delightful  rides  may  be  enjoyed, 
or  instance,  into  the  suburbs,  as  to  the  Cerro,  the  old 
fortress,  the  Vedado  and  Marianao,  charming  residential 
sections,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Almendares ;  the  botanic 
garden,  the  Colon  cemetery,  etc.  The  system  is  far  from 
complete,  but  is  being  constantly  improved  and  extended. 
Instead  of  driving  the  hacks  and  giiaguas  out  of  exist- 
ence, the  electric  cars  seem  to  have  stimulated  them 
somewhat;  and,  if  anything,  they  are  more  numerous 
than  ever. 

While  I  have  noted  no  improvement  in  the  omnibuses, 
which  are  still  dirty  and  despicable,  I  must  admit  that  the 
hacks  or  victorias,  together  with  their  drivers  and  their 
horses,  have  vastly  improved.  The  drivers  are  as 
impudent  as  ever ,  and  as  prone  to  overcharge  the  guile- 
less tourist ;  but  their  horses  are  evidently  better  fed  and 
better  treated.  Not  that  the  Hispano-Cuban  character 
has  changed  for  the  better,  perhaps ;  but  that  the  natives' 
self-interest  has  been  successfully  appealed  to.  American 
example  has  done  much ;  but  American  money  has  done 
vastly  more ! 

The  changes  made  by  the  Americans  have  all  been  for 
the  best,  and  they  have  shown  a  wise  discrimination  in 
their  improvements,  having  touched  nothing  hallowed  by 
tradition  or  made  famous  through  its  associations  with 
the  historic  past.  Thus,  while  it  might  be  to  the  eventual 
benefit  of  Havana  for  many  of  its  streets  to  be  widened 
and  an  open  artery  for  traffic  driven  straight  through  the 
city  from  the  harbor  to  the  hills,  yet  nothing  has  been 
done  in  this  direction.  Those  quaint  old  Spanish  calles, 
Obrapia^  O'Reilly,  and  Obispo,  still  exist,  and  are  yet  the 


62         OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

chief  shopping  centers,  as  of  yore.  The  chief  of  all, 
Obispo,  has  been  newly  paved,  with  smooth  ceme: 
instead  of  the  rough  blocks  over  which  rattled  the  no? 
conveyances,  vastly  to  its  permanent  improvement;  b 
its  flanking  neighbors,  O'Reilly  and  Obrapia,  still  show 
their  antiquity  in  narrow  sidewalks,  sometimes  scarcely  a 
foot  in  width.  All  three  are  bits  out  of  Old  Spain  itself, 
such  as  we  have  seen  in  Seville  and  in  Cordova,  with 
awnings  stretched  from  wall  to  wall  throughout  the  length 
of  blocks,  doors  and  grated  windows  displaying  Oriental 
goods,  and  only  an  intrusion  here  and  there  of  the 
American  and  his  more  modern  wares. 

Nothing,  indeed,  can  change  the  ways  of  the 
Spaniard ;  he  is  Americanized  in  name  only,  never  in 
dress  or  habitudes.  Walking  through  any  of  these 
streets,  occasional  glimpses  are  afforded  of  typically 
Spanish  interiors,  in  the  open  courts  containing  carriages, 
stables,  horses,  kitchen,  reception  rooms,  dining  hall  and 
sleeping  apartments,  all  huddled  about  a  common  center, 
and  enjoying  a  common  atmosphere,  impregnated  with 
odors  which  any  well-regulated  family  in  the  United 
States  would  find  absolutely  unendurable.  The  courts 
may  have  an  attempt  at  a  fountain,  with  a  thin  stream  of 
water  trickling  into  a  basin  containing  attractive  foliage, 
and  may  be  hung  with  cages  of  singing  birds;  but  the 
atmosphere  is  just  the  same — of  the  stable  and  the 
kitchen,  combined  with  more  offensive  odors  still ;  for  the 
Spaniards  always  make  most  prominent  that  department 
of  the  domestic  economy  which  we  desire  to  conceal. 
They  could  not  conceal  it  if  they  desired,  in  fact,  on 
account  of  their  laxity  of  sanitary  regulations. 

In  the  reeking,  malodorous  days  of  Spanish  domina- 
tion, a  walk  through  Obrapia  and  Obispo  streets,  espec- 


all^ 


IN   CUBA'S   CAPITAL  63 

ially  at  night,  would  reveal  glimpses  of  interiors  that  were 
calculated  with  malice  aforethought  to  capture  the 
unwary  and  divert  the  young  man's  feet  from  the  paths 
of  rectitude.  Against  the  iron  window  grilles  were 
pressed  the  forms  of  seductively-attired  senoritas,  whose 
hands  were  often  extended  to  grasp  the  passers-by.  A 
shameless  traffic  was  openly  carried  on,  which  was  not 
only  winked  at,  but  encouraged  by  the  authorities.  This 
traffic,  while  it  has  been  banished  to  other  quarters,  has 
not  been  by  any  means  strangled,  nor  even  discouraged ; 
it  has  been  segregated  and  placed  amid  the  disreputable 
surroundings  which  naturally  pertain  to  a  public  vice 
which  is  privately  practiced. 

Havana  is  no  better  supplied  with  hotels  than  it  ever 
was.  In  fact,  one  finds  here  the  same  old  ones,  conducted 
after  the  same  slip-shod  style,  charging  the  same  exorbi- 
tant rates,  as  of  yore.  They  are  for  the  most  part 
Spanish,  lacking  far  more  conveniences  than  they 
possess,  and  possessing  fewer  than  the  average  second- 
rate  hotel  in  the  United  States.  Those  that  are  centrally 
situated,  on  and  near  the  Prado,  are  highest  in  price; 
although  there  is  one  hotel  which  has  gained  a  reputation 
for  superlative  rates,  and  is  consequently  a  favorite  with 
the  millionaires,  down  near  the  Malecon.  There  is, 
however,  no  good  hotel  on  the  American  plan  with 
rates  commensurate  with  its  service.  Rather,  there 
is  no  good  American  hotel ;  though,  doubtless,  one  will 
be  built  in  the  very  near  future,  land  having  been  bought 
already  and  ground  broken  for  the  foundations,  of  one  to 
cost  a  million  dollars.  As  a  rule,  avoid  all  the  hotels 
that  have  been  recommended  to  you,  especially  those  with 
well-known  names.  Then  again,  avoid  all  those  that  have 
no  reputations  at  all,  and  you  will  be  perfectly  safe.     In 


64         OUR  WEST  INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

other  words,  you  will  not  remain  long  in  Havana  unless 
well-housed  and  well  taken  care  of,  which  means  that  you 
will  not  remain  there  at  all,  after  you  have  seen  the  sights. 

Objects  of  interest  in  and  around  Havana,  there  are, 
numerous  enough  to  claim  one's  attention  for  perhaps  a 
week ;  although  one  may  weary  of  this,  the  noisiest  city  in 
^the  world,  in  less  than  half  that  time.  The  chief  objec- 
tions to  Havana  are  its  noises  and  its  perpetual  heat  of 
daytime.  The  former  cannot  be  evaded,  if  one  be  domi- 
ciled in  one  of  the  central  hotels ;  nor  the  latter,  if  one  be 
quartered  anywhere  at  all.  So  there  you  are,  "  'twixt  the 
devil  and  the  deep,  deep  sea,"  conscientiously  desirous  to 
"  do  "  the  city  properly,  yet  anxious  to  hie  away  to  fresh 
fields  and  pastures  new. 

Such  things  as  cannot  well  be  avoided  may  be  enumer- 
ated on  the  fingers  of  both  hands.  First  of  all,  there  is 
the  cathedral,  which,  though  locally  called  the  catedral 
de  la  Virgen  de  la  Concepcion,  is  more  widely  known  to 
fame  as  that  of  Columbus.  It  is  so  called  because, 
according  to  the  Spaniards,  the  ashes  of  the  great  discov- 
erer once  rested  here,  in  a  niche  near  the  great  altar. 
According  to  the  latest  investigations,  however,  the  ashes 
of  Columbus  were  never  brought  here  at  all  (as  will  be 
shown  in  one  of  our  chapters  on  Santo  Domingo,  further 
on  in  this  book). 

It  was  in  1795,  ^^^U  being  about  to  evacuate  the  island 
of  Santo  Domingo,  the  Spaniards  in  authority  at  that 
time  conceived  the  idea  of  removing  the  remains  of 
Columbus  from  their  place  of  sepulture  in  the  cathedral 
of  Santo  Domingo,  to  a  niche  they  had  prepared  in  the 
cathedral  at  Havana. 

Guided  by  tradition,  merely,  they  did  not  even  receive 


IN   CUBA'S   CAPITAL  65 

the  sanction  of  an  inscription  of  any  sort;  but  neverthe- 
less, they  gayly  set  forth  with  their  findings  and  deposited 
them,  with  vast  ceremony,  in  their  new  resting-place  in 
Havana  cathedral.  There  the  remains  remained,  for  quite 
another  century,  and  when,  in  1899,  through  force  of 
circumstances  over  which  they  had  lost  control,  the 
Spaniards  were  compelled  to  take  their  departure  from 
Cuba,  Captain  General  Blanco  conceived  the  plan  of 
taking  away  with  them  the  "  real  and  only  remains  "  of 
the  great  Columbus.  So  they  made  their  last  voyage 
across  the  Atlantic,  and  were  taken  in  a  war-ship  to 
Seville,  where  they  were  placed  in  the  cathedral  there. 
Already,  for  centuries,  there  had  been  an  inscribed  slab 
of  m.arble  let  into  the  cathedral  pave,  in  Seville,  with  that 
world-famous  legend: 

"A  Castilla  y  a  Leon 
Mundo  Nuevo  did  Colon**; 

but  this  slab  covered  the  remains  of  Don  Fernando, 
Christopher's  illegitimate  son  and  biographer.  Recent 
investigations  have  shown  that  the  ashes  which  were,  first 
of  all,  taken  from  Santo  Domingo  to  Havana,  in  1795, 
and  last  of  all  taken  from  Havana  to  Seville,  in  1899,  each 
time  by  misguided  Spaniards  more  zealous  than  wise, 
were  those  of  Don  Diego,  and  not  of  Don  Christopher. 
So,  as  it  happens,  Spain  now  possesses  the  remains  of 
the  two  sons  of  Columbus,  Diego  and  Fernando;  but 
those  of  the  great  Discoverer  still  remain  in  Santo 
Domingo. 

No  one  can  deny  that  the  Spaniards,  at  last,  desired  to 
"  do  the  right  thing "  by  the  memory  of  the  great 
Columbus.  Those  who  were  his  contemporaries  treated 
him  meanly  enough  while  living,  as  history  shows,  from 


66         OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

King  Ferdinand  to  Isabella  and  Bobadilla,  administering 
kicks  and  cuffs  (when  his  back  was  turned")  and  fawning 
in  front  of  his  face.  After  he  died  there  was  a  slight 
revulsion  of  feeling;  though  it  took  a  long  and  stub- 
bornly contested  process  of  law  to  compel  King  Ferdi- 
nand to  give  Don  Diego  his  rights  as  son  of  the  great 
"  Admiral  of  the  Ocean  Sea."  Still,  the  Spaniards  of 
those  days,  and  all  other  days,  were  great  on  grand- 
iloquent inscriptions,  which  in  vast  redundancy  have  since 
overflowed  innumerable  monuments  and  cenotaphs.  The 
cenotaph  in  this  cathedral  was  once  surmounted  by  a  bust, 
beneath  which  this  inscription  told  what  the  Spaniards 
thought  of  Columbus : 

"  Oh,  restos  e  imagen  del  grande  Colon, 
Mil  sighs  durad  guardados  en  la  urna 
Y  en  la  remembranza  de  nuestra  nacion." 

"Oh,   remains   and   image  of  the  great  .Colon, 
A  thousand  ages  thou  wilt  be  preserved  in  this  urn. 
And  in  the  remembrance  of  our  nation." 

Hardly  a  *' thousand  ages"  passed  away  before  the 
restos  were  again  on  the  move,  while  both  bust  and 
urn  have  disappeared.  In  their  place,  the  cathedral 
shows  merely  a  vacant  niche  and  a  pretentious  pedestal 
where  once  stood  a  monument. 

There  is  a  statue  of  Columbus  in  the  court-yard  of  the 
governor  general's  palace,  on  the  Plaza  de  Armas,  which 
is  of  itself  a  building  well  worth  a  visit.  It  was  the 
abode  of  all  the  captains-general  for  seventy  years  pre- 
ceding the  advent  of  the  Americans,  and  these  included 
such  names  as  Campos,  Weyler,  and  Blanco. 

A  statue  of  Ferdinand  VII.  stands  in  the  center  of  the 
Plaza  de  Armas,  and  no  photograph  of  the  palac«'  can  be 
taken  without  this   marble   in   the   foreground.     It   has 


IN   CUBA'S   CAPITAL  ^^j 

suffered  a  better  fate  than  the  statue  of  Queen  Isabella, 
lately  deceased,  which  once  adorned  the  ''  Parque  Isabel," 
now  known  as  the  Central  Square.  Somehow  or  other, 
the  Spanish  colonials  always  had  a  peculiar  affection 
for  the  last  King  Ferdinand,  who  was  a  scamp  well 
worthy  to  be  the  putative  father  of  the  late  Queen 
Isabella ;  but  whose  sufferings  at  the  hands  of  Napoleon 
may  have  bestowed  upon  him  the  air  of  a  martyr,  in  the 
eyes  of  his  far-distant  subjects  across  the  Atlantic.  This 
portrait-statue  of  him  is  more  nearly  perfect  as  a  work  of 
art  than  he  was  as  a  work  of  nature. 

Memorials  of  the  old  Havannah  cluster  thickly  about 
the  Plaza  de  Armas,  and  back  of  the  post-office  stands  the 
Fuerza,  or  most  ancient  fortress  of  the  city,  built  in  1538, 
by  command  of  Hernando  de  Soto.  The  Morro  is  the 
"  lion  "  of  Havana,  and  should  by  all  means  be  visited ; 
but  in  the  morning,  and  the  nearer  sunrise  the  better — 
provided  permission  can  be  obtained.  The  commander 
of  Cabanas  issues  permits  to  visit  the  Morro,  and  after 
eight  or  nine  in  the  morning  the  long  walk  between  the 
two  groups  of  fortresses  is  very  hot  and  unpleasant. 
From  a  military  point  of  view,  the  Cabanas  is  the  more 
important  of  the  two  great  works  ;  but  each  is  picturesque 
in  its  way,  the  situation  of  the  Morro,  rising  sheer  from 
the  sea  a  hundred  feet,  with  the  great  waves  thundering 
against  walls  and  parapets,  being  magnificent. 

Inside  the  Morro  you  are  shown  the  dungeons  into 
ivvhich  the  Spaniards  cast  the  Cubans,  who  were  sub- 
sequently murdered  by  being  thrust  through  a  hole-in-the- 
wall  over  the  sea,  where  the  sea-monsters  lay  in  wait  for 
their  expected  prey,  in  the  "  sharks'  nest,"  or  nido  de 
tihurones,  a  blue  water-rift  beneath  the  easternmost 
sentry-box. 


68         OUR  WEST  INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

Looking  inland  from  the  Punta,  opposite  the  Morro, 
one  discerns  another  memento  of  ancient  Havana,  in  the 
shape  of  a  sentry  tower  and  a  fragment  of  the  old  wall 
which  once  inclosed  the  city.  This  wall  was  doomed  to 
demolition  many  years  ago,  for  the  city  had  outgrown  its 
limits  and  overflowed  into  the  suburbs  along  shore,  before 
the  Spaniards  loosed  their  hold.  Yet  another  mural  frag- 
ment is  a  portion  of  the  wall  against  which  a  band  of 
medical  students  was  shot  to  death  by  the  Spaniards  in 
1 87 1.  All  these  objects  are  near  the  jail  and  peniten- 
tiary, entrance  to  which  may  be  obtained  on  application; 
not  so  much  to  view  the  interior  of  the  prison,  as  to  see 
an  historic  object  on  exhibition  there.  This  is  the  grew- 
some  garrote,  or  instrument  for  the  execution  of  con- 
demned criminals.  It  is  an  iron  pillar  affixed  to  a  wooden 
platform  about  ten  feet  square  and  six  feet  from  the 
.ground.  An  iron  chair  is  attached  to  the  column,  two 
feet  above  which  is  an  iron  collar,  which  is  closed  in  front 
by  a  clasp,  after  the  victim's  neck  has  been  inserted.  A 
screw  protrudes  through  the  back  of  the  collar,  which  is 
operated  by  a  bar  somewhat  similar  to  that  of  a  copy- 
ing press,  only  it  is  perpendicular  instead  of  hori- 
zontal. 

The  end  of  the  screw  is  pointed,  and  when  twisted  up 
projects  about  an  inch  into  the  center  of  the  ring.  The 
victim  is  placed  in  the  fatal  chair,  the  ring  clasped  in 
front  of  his  throat,  and  his  hands  and  feet  firmly  tied. 
There  is  a  quick  turn  of  the  screw,  and  the  spinal  column 
is  broken,  death  immediately  ensuing.  The  executioner 
is  a  middle-aged  black  man,  whose  sentence  to  death  was 
commuted  to  life  imprisonment  on  condition  that  he 
become  the  public  garroter.  At  the  command  of  the 
superintendent,  he  cheerfully  consents  to  show  visitors 


IN  CUBA'S  CAPITAL  69 

how  garfoting  is  performed.  For  an  actual  execution  he 
is  said  to  receive  a  gold  doubloon  per  victim. 

The  setting  of  Havana,  within  a  semicircle  of  rounded 
hills,  each  the  site  of  an  attractive  settlement,  with  towers 
rising  above  the  roof-tops  and  palms  interspersed,  is 
extremely  "  fetching."  The  gauguas  and  electric  lines 
run  out  to  these  suburbs,  and  even  to  Marianao,  which  is 
also  reached  by  steam  railroad.  This  last  is  a  favorite 
bathing  resort,  and  taken  together  with  the  nearer  Vedado, 
where  are  rock-hewn  baths  in  the  coral  reefs  of  the  sea- 
shore, is  a  lively  place  during  the  summer  season.  There 
is  nothing  more  significant  of  the  change  for  the  better 
that  has  come  over  Havana,  than  the  removal  of  its 
wealthier  citizens  into  the  suburbs,  and  the  building  there 
of  houses  for  the  people  of  average  means.  Formerly, 
they  were  crowded  into  dark  and  noisome  tenements,  fed 
upon  foul  airs,  and  deafened  by  uncouth  noises ;  but  with 
the  extension  of  the  trolley  system  all  this  is  changed. 

Should  you  desire  to  see  what  a  tropical  river  is  like, 
without  being  compelled  to  journey  into  the  forests,  take 
a  little  trip  to  the  mouth  of  the  Almendares,  the  springs 
of  which  supply  Havana  with  its  water.  Boats  may  be 
hired,  and  a  pleasurable  excursion  may  be  taken  up  the 
stream,  drifting  beneath  clumps  of  feathery  bamboos,  in 
the  shade  of  broad-armed  ceiba  trees  hung  with  vines  and 
air-plants,  and  between  gardens  of  plantains  and  bananas. 

Two  excursions  from  Havana  which  are  never  omitted 
are,  first,  to  the  Colon  cemetery,  with  its  magnificent  mon- 
uments, notably  the  firemen's  and  that  to  the  students 
slain  by  the  Spaniards;  and  second,  to  the  captain  gen- 
eral's gardens,  now  the  captain  general's  no  longer,  but 
belonging  to  the  state.  These  botanical  gardens  have 
long  been  famous,  one  of  the  features  being  an  avenue  of 


70         OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

palms  with  close-set  trunks  o'ertopped  with  canopies  of 
verdure. 

Some  feel  impelled  to  visit  the  Vuelta  Aba  jo,  in  order 
to  study  the  various  processes  of  tobacco  culture;  but 
it  is  not  necessary  to  take  that  long,  hot,  dusty,  and 
fatiguing  ride  to  the  Pinar  del  Rio  region,  merely  to 
behold  the  ''  weed  "  growing  in  its  native  wilds.  Tobaccc 
farms  may  be  seen  in  the  Connecticut  Valley ;  they  may 
be  seen  quite  near  Havana,  in  Guana  jay,  reached  by  a 
few  hours'  ride  over  the  United  Railways.  There,  too, 
may  be  seen  the  vast  tobacco  barns  in  which  the  leaves 
are  cured,  as  well  as  the  perfect  plants  growing  in  their 
strength  and  beauty.  The  processes  are  not  different 
from  the  Vuelta  Aba  jo  processes,  and  the  scenery  by  the 
way,  of  broad  fields  adorned  with  innumerable  royal 
palms,  is  not  inferior  to  that  of  the  more  distant  province. 

The  excursion  to  Guana  jay  may  be  made  in  a  few 
hours,  leaving  Havana  in  the  morning,  at  8  45 ;  return- 
ing to  the  city  at  about  four  in  the  afternoon.  But  an 
extension  of  the  trip  may  be  made  by  carriage  to  the  pic- 
turesque port  of  Mariel,  which,  with  its  deep-water  harbor 
and  itS  surrounding  hills  devoted  to  banana  culture,  is 
looked  upon  as  the  coming  country  for  the  agriculturist 
in  the  Havana  region. 

A  stop-over  at  San  Antonio  de  los  Banos,  will  show 
one  of  the  wonders  of  Cuba,  in  the  "  disappearing  river  " 
there,  one  of  a  system  of  underground  streams  peculiar 
to  this  region.  The  underground  river  of  San  Antonio 
not  only  flows  through  a  cave  adorned  with  stalactites 
and  stalagmites,  but  it  is  famous  for  containing  some 
remarkable  blind  fishes,  which  have  been  made  the  subject 
of  a  monograph  by  a  learned  professor  of  the  United 
States  Fish  Commission.     The  Cuban  naturalist,  Poey, 


IN   CUBA'S   CAPITAL  71 

whose  great  work  on  Cuban  fishes  is  yet  in  manuscript, 
first  called  attention  to  the  number  and  peculiarities  of 
the  blind  cave-fishes  of  the  island,  and  he  mentioned  many 
places  in  which  they  were  to  be  found. 

There  is  no  system  near  Havana  that  takes  one  to  so 
many  points  of  interest  as  the  "  United  Railways,"  with 
its  very  accessible  station  right  in  the  center  of  the  city. 
Villanueva,  it  is  called,  after  the  Conde  de  Villa  Nueva, 
whose  name  is  on  the  statue  of  "  La  India  "  in  the  Parque 
Colon.  Taking  train  here  amidst  the  most  prosaic  sur- 
roundings, in  a  few  hours  one  is  whisked  through  the 
commonplace,  the  picturesque,  and  the  romantic,  in  mar- 
velous succession.  This  is  in  allusion  to  the  route  to 
Batabano  and  the  Isle  of  Pines,  both  of  which  are  reached 
over  the  rails  of  the  United  Railways,  the  former  in  an 
hour  and  a  half  from  Havana,  in  which  time  one  has  been 
taken  right  across  the  island  and  introduced  to  the  scenery 
of  an  entirely  different  world  from  that  of  the  north 
coast. 

Batabano  stands  on  stilts,  and  is  a  sponge-fishing  place, 
once  the  chosen  site  for  Cuba's  capital  itself.  Steamers 
sail  thence  for  all  ports  on  the  south  coast :  for  Cienfuegos, 
for  Santiago  de  Cuba,  going  eastward ;  and  for  Pinar 
del  Rio  points,  going  westward.  But  the  most  interesting 
spot  reached  from  Batabano  is  that  land  of  romance  and 
mystery,  the  Isle  of  Pines,  situated  about  sixty  miles  to 
the  south.  Twice  a  week,  on  Sunday  and  Thursday,  a 
light-draught  steamer  makes  connection  at  Batabano  with 
the  morning  express  trains  from  Villanueva. 

That  is,  the  Isle  of  Pines  has  been  considered  a  land  of 
mystery  until  quite  recently ;.  but  the  pushing  Americans, 
who  have  invested  more  than  a  million  dollars  there 
already,  have  done  much  to  dispel  the  air  of  romanticism, 


72         OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

in  their  endeavors  to  show  that  the  soil  of  the  island  con- 
tains vast  resources  in  the  way  of  latent  riches.  While 
there  are  fine  marble  quarries  in  the  island,  the  main 
dependence  of  the  settlers,  the  Americanos  say,  will  be 
agriculture.  Hitherto,  the  island  has  been  possessed  by  a 
few  unambitious  and  unenergetic  Cubans,  who  lived  in 
mud  or  straw  huts,  content  with  their  ownership  of 
potential  millions,  perfectly  satisfied  with  their  holdings, 
and  who  were  very  much  alarmed  when  their  aggressive 
neighbors  from  the  North  came  down  and  offered  them 
more  for  their  properties  than  they  had  believed  they 
would  be  worth. 


IV 

THE  RAILROAD  BETWEEN  HAVANA  AND 
SANTIAGO 

The  various  systems  combined  in  the  great  united  line, 
Havana-Santiago  —  Scenery  along  the  way  —  Mud-splashed 
natives  and  bohios  —  The  sugar  section  of  Cuba  —  Strange 
trees  and  shrubs  —  The  Cuban  and  his  crooked  stick  — 
Attractions  of  Matanzas,  the  Yumuri  valley  and  caves  of 
Bellamar  —  Railroads  that  cross  the  island  —  Cities  of  the 
south  coast  —  the  "  Cuban  Saratoga "  and  Santa  Clara  — 
Possibilities  for  the  American  colonizer  —  Ciego  de  Avila 
and  the  "  impregnable  "  trocha  —  Blockhouses  that  were  of 
no  avail  —  A  vast  cattle  country  —  Bayamo,  where  President 
Palma  was  born  —  The  "Gardens  of  the  Queen  "  —  The 
oldest  railway  in  Spanish  dominions  —  Camagiiey  or  Puerto 
Principe,  an  old  city  with  a  new  lease  of  life  —  Its  big  hotel 
and  salubrious  atmosphere  —  Through  the  forest  lands, 
where  mahogany  and  cedar  abound  —  Alto  Cedro  and  the  Bay 
of  Nipe  —  A  tropical  wilderness  and  vegetal  paradise. 

THE  railroad  between  Havana  and  Santiago 
affords  one  of  the  grandest  rides  in  the  world. 
The  distance  between  the  two  points  is  540 
miles,  or  869  kilometers,  and  is  covered  in  twenty- 
five  hours,  on  a  time-table  that  keeps  the  schedule  to 
the  minute.  By  the  perfect  cooperation  of  the  various 
systems  composing  the  great  united  line  along  the  back- 
bone of  Cuba,  and  which  was  only  completed  in  1902,  by 
the  construction  of  the  "  Cuba  Railway,"  excellent  and 
punctual  service  is  afforded  from  one  end  of  the  island 
to  the  other. 

73 


74         OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

Exactly  at  9  P.  M.,  every  day  in  the  week,  a  train 
pulls  out  of  the  Villanueva  station  at  Havana  composed 
of  first-  and  third-class  day  coaches,  mail  and  express 
cars,  and  a  through  **  sleeper,"  to  which  after  daylight  an 
observation  car  is  added.  At  6  A.  M.,  a  similar  train 
leaves  Santiago,  going  westward,  so  that  by  taking  the 
route  both  ways  all  the  glorious  scenery  of  the  island  is 
revealed  to  the  traveler — and  it  is  a  revelation — nothing 
of  importance  should  be  missed. 

By  these  through  trains,  however,  one  of  the  most 
important  places  along  the  line  is  reached  at  a  very  bad 
time  for  observation,  and  that  is  Matanzas,  at  which, 
going  one  way,  the  traveler  arrives  about  midniglit,  and 
going  the  other  at  four  in  the  morning.  This  difficulty 
may  be  obviated,  if  one  be  starting  from  Havana,  by  tak- 
ing in  advance  the  excursion  offered  by  the  United  Rail- 
ways Line,  giving  an  all-day  trip,  Havana-Matanzas- 
Havana,  for  eleven  dollars,  including  breakfast  or  lunch 
at  Matanzas,  volantes  to  the  Valley  of  Yumuri  and  the 
caves  of  Bellamar — all  the  attractions,  in  fact ;  or  one 
may  stop  over  a  day  at  Matanzas,  where  enough  of  in- 
terest will  be  found  to  fill  it  pretty  well. 

The  distance  from  Havana  to  Matanzas  is  about  sixty 
miles,  and  the  time  by  rail  two  or  three  hours.  The 
scenery  en  route  is  typical  of  the  western  and  central  parts 
of  Cuba,  being  chiefly  of  cane-fields  interspersed  with 
smaller  farms  or  abandoned  tracts  lying  fallow  from  lack 
of  means  to  cultivate.  Everywhere  you  will  see  the 
great  pearl-gray  columns  of  the  royal  palm,  with  their 
coronals  of  verdure,  in  groups,  in  long,  straight  rows 
forming  avenues  and  boundary-lines,  and  always  orna- 
mental. There  will  also  be  bunches  of  bamboos,  feathery- 
foliaged,  like  tufts  of  plumes,  their  lance-likc  culms  clash- 


BETWEEN  HAVANA  AND  SANTIAGO   75 

ing  together  in  the  wind  and  their  willow-Hke  leaves 
rustHng.  They  generally  indicate  the  vicinage  of  water, 
though,  like  the  palms,  they  grow  in  all  sorts  of  places 
except  in  the  highest  hills  or  mountains. 

Now  and  then  you  see  a  great  tobacco  barn,  five  or  ten 
times  as  large  as  the  dwelling  alongside  it,  though  both 
are  built  of  palm,  as  picturesque  and  as  appropriate  to 
the  landscape  as  structures  made  by  man  can  be.  The 
thatched  hut,  as  perhaps  the  reader  knows,  was  derived 
from  the  aboriginal  inhabitants  of  Cuba,  who  were  dis- 
covered living  in  the  same  kind  of  bohios  as  we  see  to-day 
all  over  the  island.  Traveling  eastward,  the  vast  tobacco 
barns  gradually  disappear,  to  give  way  to  another  type  of 
building  more  modern  and  expensive — the  ingenio,  or 
sugar-mill.  Eastward  and  westward  from  Havana  prov- 
ince lies  the  vast  sugar-cane  region  of  Cuba,  stretching 
from  coast  to  coast  and  becoming  more  and  more  in  evi- 
dence as  we  proceed.  Like  immense  fields  of  maize  or 
Indian  corn,  the  tracts  of  golden-green  cane,  miles  in 
extent,  are  only  infrequently  dotted  with  the  mills  where 
the  cane  is  crushed  and  its  juice  reduced  to  saccharine 
crystals.  Access  to  the  sugar-mills  is  generally  easy, 
provided  one  can  find  the  time  and  opportunity ;  and  the 
chances  are  that  the  traveler  has  already  visited  one  of  the 
typical  structures,  such  as  the  "  Toledo,"  not  far  from 
Havana  and  Marianao,  where  an  admission  fee  is 
charged.  The  owners  of  the  great  properties  in  Cuba 
are  nothing  if  not  thrifty,  and  are  generally  not  above 
taking,  even  demanding,  a  fee  for  inspecting  their  works. 
This  is  Spanish  "  thrift,"  as  practiced  by  the  people  who 
are  so  loud  in  denouncing  the  acquisitiveness  of  the 
invading  "  Yankees." 

The  caji^-fields  appear  to  occupy  a  great  proportion  of 


76         OUR  WEST  INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

the  total  area  of  Cuba ;  but  late  statistics  appear  to  show 
that  the  aggregate  acreage  devoted  to  sugar-cane  is  only 
about  one-sixtieth  of  the  grand  total  of  28,000,000 
acres. 

You  would  think,  also,  when  in  Havana,  that  the  cul- 
ture of  tobacco  is  the  chief  occupation  of  the  Cuban  agri- 
culturist. As  a  great  favor,  one  of  the  princely  tobac- 
conists will  allow  you  to  go  over  his  factory,  where  hun- 
dreds of  men  are  employed  in  rolling  and  pasting  the 
"weed";  and,  though  the  same  process  may  be  seen  in 
Key  West  and  Tampa,  even  in  New  York,  there  are 
tourists  who  go  into  ecstasies  over  the  sight.  Just  why, 
it  is  impossible  to  say;  but  probably  because  they  think 
it  the  proper  thing  to  do.  Neither  cigar  nor  cigarette- 
making  is  an  attractive  process ;  tobacco  culture  is  not  a 
novel  occupation,  though  demanding  skill  and  experi- 
ence; and  too  much  has  been  made  of  both,  hitherto,  in 
descriptions  of  Cuba  and  her  resources. 

It  will  not  be  the  Vuelta  Aba  jo  region  with  its  fields  of 
tobacco,  nor  the  great  central  section  with  its  vaster  fields 
of  sugar-cane,  that  will  engage  the  attention  of  the  incom- 
ing Americans  with  their  capital — whether  large  or  small 
in  amount — but  the  lands  that  can  be  made  to  produce 
coffee  and  cacao,  pineapples  and  citrus  fruits,  and  even 
"  garden  truck "  for  northern  markets.  Tobacco  is 
grown  on  the  insignificant  total  of  one  hundred  thousand 
acr^s;  but  it  has  been  the  means  of  enriching  a  good 
many.  Not  so  many,  however,  that  they  cannot  be 
formed  into  a  "  trust "  that  will  eventually  control  the 
whole  supply  and  yet  further  enhance  the  values  of  cigars 
that  are  already  priced  far  beyond  their  worth. 

Nearing  Matanzas,  we  are  getting  well  out  of  the 
tobacco  section  and  into  the  region  of  waving  cane. 


BETWEEN  HAVANA  AND  SANTIAGO  77 

Aside  from  the  royal  palms,  the  occasional  ceiba  or  silk- 
cotton  trees  are  the  most  conspicuous,  with  their  massive 
trunks,  broad-spreading  limbs,  and  far-extending  roots 
swelling  into  the  parent  trunks  like  the  buttresses  to  a 
Gothic  cathedral.  Masses  of  tropical  trees  are  seen,  also, 
such  as  the  mango,  the  mamey,  the  nispero,  and  a  dozen 
others,  but  generally  so  densely  grouped  that  their  foliage 
and  fruits  can  hardly  be  distinguished.  Now  and  then 
abandoned  fields  covered  with  guavas,  from  the  fruit  of 
which  the  delicious  pastas  and  jellies  are  made,  stretch 
alongside  the  railroad  tracks. 

The  huts  of  the  natives  are  not  so  frequently  seen  as 
farther  along  the  line,  beyond  the  sugar-producing  prov- 
inces, for  the  cane-culture  crowds  them  out ;  but  some  of 
them  are  attractively  embowered  amid  the  shining  leaves 
of  citrus  trees,  more  often  shaded  by  the  dome-shaped 
crowns  of  dark-green  mangos.  The  ordinary  railroad 
station,  as  well  as  the  beginning  of  a  town,  in  Cuba,  is 
usually  a  horror  of  unattractiveness,  despite  the  endeavors 
of  the  railroad  men  to  build  it  well  originally  and  to  keep 
it  up  to  the  mark  subsequently.  Crowded  about  it  will 
be  a  host  of  ox-carts  to  which  the  beasts  are  yoked  by  the 
horns ;  occasionally  a  cumbersome  volante,  mud-plastered 
from  wrestling  with  the  roads  of  the  country ;  and  always 
a  crowd  of  loafers  in  cotton  shirts  and  flowing  pantaloons ; 
hatless,  some  of  them,  and  also  shoeless. 

Right  in  sight  of  the  car  windows  may  be  seen  a  wit- 
less Cuban  furrowing  the  land  with  a  crooked  stick,  using 
this  primitive  implement  of  the  times  of  Noah  and  Abra- 
ham in  preference  to  the  best  plow  that  might  be  offered 
him.  The  Cuban  is  a  fool,  of  course;  but  he  won't 
believe  you  if  you  tell  him  so,  although  you  know  it.  His 
great-great-grandfather   plowed   with   a   crooked   stick, 


78         OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

hitched  by  a  pole  to  the  horns  of  his  oxen,  and  why  should 
he  not  do  the  same? 

Besides,  the  Yankee  plow,  he  is  ever  ready  to  tell  you, 
digs  too  deep  a  hole  in  the  earth — turns  up  the  sub-soil, 
which  the  great  God  never  intended  should  be  disturbed. 
Then  again,  the  Yankee  plow  costs  too  much  for  a  poor 
Cuban;  though  this  argument  is  invalidated  by  the  fact 
that  the  rich  ones  use  the  crooked  stick — or  allow  it  to  be 
used  on  their  plantations — when  they  can  well  afford  the 
finer  implement. 

But  if  we  linger  too  long  by  the  wayside  commenting 
upon  Cuban  peculiarities,  we  shall  not  reach  Matanzas 
in  time  for  breakfast.  There  is  scant  soil  for  any  kind  of 
cultivation  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  Matanzas ;  but 
that,  of  course,  will  not  concern  the  tourist,  who  cares 
more  for  what  he  can  see  than  for  the  latent  possibilities 
of  the  earth.  This  city  of  about  45,000  inhabitants  lies 
curled  around  a  beautiful  bay  which  is  deep  enough  for 
good-sized  steamers  to  enter,  and  is  situated  upon  and 
amid  some  swelling  hills.  Its  architecture  is  the  Ameri- 
canized Hispano-Moriscan,  typical  of  the  better  portions 
of  Cuba's  cities,  and  some  of  the  dwellings  are  imposing, 
especially  out  at  Versailles  suburb  and  along  the  road 
from  the  plaza  to  the  caves  of  Bellamar.  Matanzas  has 
its  central  square  or  plaza,  on  one  side  of  which  is  the 
governor's  palace,  on  another  the  post-office,  and  on 
another  still  a  very  nice  hotel,  the  best  in  the  place. 

But  it  is  not  for  the  sake  of  its  attractions  per  se  that 
we  have  come  to  Matanzas.  Were  it  not  for  the  fact  that 
Nature  has  bestowed  two  great  gifts  upon  this  region,  it 
is  doubtful  if  anyone  would  stop  over  for  a  glimpse  of 
the  city.  One  such  gift  were  enough  to  cause  travelers 
to  make  pilgrimages  here,  and  that  is  the  near  valley  of 


BETWEEN  HAVANA  AND  SANTIAGO   79 

the  Yumuri,  which  no  less  an  authority  than  Humboldt 
pronounced  the  most  beautiful  in  the  world.  Hum- 
boldt was  prone  to  indulge  in  superlatives ;  but  in  this 
case  he  may  not  have  gone  far  astray,  for  the  vale  of 
Yumuri  is  certainly  an  entrancing  spot. 

There  are  two  points  from  which  the  Yumuri  may  be 
viewed,  the  nearest  to  Matanzas,  about  two  miles,  being 
the  hill  and  chapel  of  Montserrat.  You  may  go  thither 
on  foot,  by  coche,  or  by  volant e,  the  last-named  means  of 
conveyance  being  generally  chosen  because  of  its  novelty 
— not  for  its  comfort.  There  are  not  many  volantes 
left  in  Cuba  that  are  available  to  the  general  tourist,  and 
perhaps  it  may  be  as  well  to  charter  one  of  these  craft  on 
this  occasion,  for  another  may  not  ofifer.  They  ''  come 
high,"  and  they  are  swung  high,  on  huge  leather  springs 
suspended  between  wheels  of  vast  diameter,  at  least  eight 
feet  across. 

In  going  to  view  the  Yumuri  from  the  cumbres,  farther 
from  the  city  than  Montserrat,  the  volantes  are  almost  a 
necessity,  the  road  is  so  rough  and  the  holes  in  it  so  deep. 
However,  whether  on  foot,  by  coche,  or  by  volante,  by  all 
means  go  to  see  the  beautiful  Yumuri,  a  vale  sunken  five 
or  six  hundred  feet  between  encircling  hills,  its  rolling 
surface  dotted  with  royal  palms,  and  rounded  knolls 
forming  the  foot-hills  to  this  Royal  Plain  in  minia- 
ture. A  small  stream  meanders  through  the  valley, 
which  breaks  between  almost  vertical  cliffs  and  flows 
amidst  the  city,  with  the  river  San  Juan  dividing  Matan- 
zas into  three  parts,  known  as  Versailles,  Pueblo  Vie  jo, 
and  NuevO. 

You  look  down  upon  the  Yumuri  from  Montserrat 
as  into  a  vast  bowl  or  crater  from  its  brim,  and  behold 
its  palm-dotted  surface  diversified  with  cocoas,  cacaos, 


8o         OUR  WEST  INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

almond  trees,  and  small  plantations  of  coffee  and  sugar- 
cane. Not  many  houses  show  themselves,  and  there 
are  comparatively  few  huts,  on  the  various  spurs  from 
the  inclosing  hillside.  It  is  most  assuredly  a  beautiful 
retreat  to  look  upon;  but  I  fancy  life  must  get  rather 
monotonous  within  it,  especially  in  the  rainy  season, 
when  it  would  be  far  easier  to  slide  down  the  hillsides 
over  the  slippery  soil  than  to  climb  to  their  crests  and 
view  the  world  outside. 

Then  there  are  the  caves  of  Bellamar.  They  may  have 
existed  as  long  as  Yumuri ;  but  they  have  not  been  known 
to  man  so  long,  having  been  discovered  accidentally  less 
than  fifty  years  ago,  by  a  Chinese  laborer  who  lost  a 
crowbar  down  a  hole.  When  he  went  to  look  for  it  he 
found  an  opening  into  one  of  the  most  beautiful  caverns 
on  earth. 

The  main  chamber  is  estimated  at  about  200  feet  long 
by  70  wide,  says  a  writer  of  note,  "  and  while  it  far  sur- 
passes in  richness  and  splendor  the  temple  of  the  sam^ 
name  in  the  Mammoth  Cave,  it  does  not  equal  it  in  size 
or  solemn  grandeur."  The  caves  of  Bellamar  are  suffi- 
ciently extensive  to  fatigue  one  in  exploring  them  thor- 
oughly, as  I  can  testify,  having  been  through  them,  as 
well  as  through  Kentucky's  Mammoth  Cave.  There  is 
no  comparison  between  the  two,  the  one  being  vast  and 
gloomy;  the  other,  the  Cuban  Bellamar,  being  rich  and 
sparkling  in  stalactitic  and  stalagmitic  formations,  in  laby- 
rinthine passages  through  rows  of  crystal  colonnades, 
where  the  only  sound  is  that  of  dripping  water  making 
music  in  the  darkness.  There  is  a  "  fat  man's  misery  " 
in  the  Bellamar,  where  the  passage  through  is  so  narrow 
that  not  everyone  can  make  it,  and  the  descents  into  the 
deeps  are  sharp,  while  the  bridged  spaces  across  chasms 


BETWEEN  HAVANA  AND  SANTIAGO  8i 

and  along  the  brinks  of  steeps  are  sufficiently  perilous  to 
cause  a  shudder.  The  cave  has  been  followed  three  miles 
and  to  a  depth  of  five  hundred  feet,  in  the  white  and 
sparkling  limestone. 

Returning  to  the  main  line  and  our  journey  from  Ha- 
vana to  Santiago,  mention  should  be  made,  in  passing,  of 
a  small  town  a  little  off  the  route  of  travel,  and  about  two 
hours  distant  from  Matanzas,  known  as  Madruga,  the 
"  Cuban  Saratoga,"  which  is  a  natural  sanatorium,  being 
filled  with  springs  impregnated  with  iron,  sulphur, 
potassa,  and  magnesia,  efficacious  in  many  diseases.  Its 
name  is  a  sadly  suggestive  one  in  Cuba,  being  associated 
with  some  fierce  fighting  during  the  revolution,  when  the 
dead  and  wounded  of  the  Spaniards,  repulsed  in  their 
attacks  upon  the  patriots  who  were  intrenched  on  a 
lofty  hill,  were  brought  into  the  town  by  scores. 

Had  you  taken  the  night  train  from  Havana,  after  re 
freshing  slumber  aboard  the  "  sleeper  "  you  would  have 
awakened  about  six  the  next  morning  at  the  station  of 
Santa  Clara,  where  coffee  is  served  and  a  few  minutes  are 
allowed  for  refreshments  of  the  cruder  sort.  The  town 
or  city  of  Santa  Clara,  so  long  famous  for  the  beauty  of 
its  women  and  the  salubrity  of  its  airs,  is  at  a  little  dis- 
tance from  the  station,  and  a  special  trip  must  be  made  to 
visit  it.  Founded  in  1689,  it  is  one  of  the  older  cities 
of  the  interior,  and  stands  in  the  center  of  a  region  of 
hill  and  plain  diversified  with  sugar  plantations,  from  the 
wealth  of  which  it  draws  the  substance  of  its  living. 

Hills  and  mountains  play  at  hide  and  seek,  more  or 
less  distant  from  the  line  of  the  railway,  and  there  are 
numerous  examples  of  those  rounded  elevations,  some  of 
them  capped  with  palm  trees,  that  are  yet  more  numer- 
ous in  the  Santiago  province.     Here,  now,  there  is  an 


S2         OUR  WEST  INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

aspect  of  cultivation  that  seems  to  presage  the  possibiUty 
of  land  for  the  colonist  and  settler,  for  the  sugar-cane  no 
longer  monopolizes  the  territory,  but  it  is  less  given  over 
to  any  one  kind  of  culture.  The  uplands  become  more 
open,  with  valleys  of  verdure  interspersed,  but  there  is  a 
vast  quantity  of  apparently  sterile  land  as  the  geographi- 
cal center  of  the  island  is  reached,  at  or  about  Ciego  de 
Avila,  which  is  the  narrowest  part  of  Cuba  east  of  Matan- 
zas.  It  is  not  so  sterile,  the  old  settlers  tell  me,  as  it  seems 
to  be,  being  merely  grown  up  to  "  bush  "  and  lacking  the 
necessary  cultivation  to  make  it  *'  blossom  as  the  rose." 

At  Ciego  de  Avila  one  sees  substantial  reminders  of  the 
late  revolution,  in  the  numerous  watch-towers  that  cross 
the  country  at  this  point.  They  are  still  in  a  good  state  of 
preservation,  each  one  being  about  twenty  feet  square, 
with  an  entrance-way  a  dozen  feet  from  the  ground,  the 
lower  part  solidly  built  of  masonry,  and  the  upper  consist- 
ing of  a  square  tower  sheathed  with  corrugated  iron.  The 
stupendous,  yet  worse  than  wasted,  labor  performed  by 
the  Spaniards  during  the  war  may  be  appreciated  from 
the  fact  that  they  cleared  a  space  a  kilometer  in  width 
directly  across  the  island,  a  distance  of  nearly  fifty  miles, 
from  coast  to  coast,  and  erected  210  substantial  block- 
houses, each  one  of  which  was  occupied  by  its  guard, 
equipped  with  a  powerful  electric  light  and  in  telephonic 
communication  with  every  other,  and  the  whole  connected 
by  an  all  but  impassable  entanglement  of  barbed  wire.  I 
say  "  all  but  impassable,"  for  the  Cubans  laughed  at  this 
"  impregnable  trocha  "  of  their  enemies,  and  whenever 
they  felt  like  doing  so  cut  their  way  through  it  and  passed 
quite  freely  from  one  side  to  the  other. 

But  there,  to-day,  exists  the  kilometer-wide  space 
cleared  by  the  Spaniards,  reaching  from  sea  to  sea,  run- 


BETWEEN  HAVANA  AND  SANTIAGO  83 

ning  in  a  north-south  direction,  and  as  it  was  divested  of 
every  bush  and  shrub  big  enough  to  conceal  a  lurking 
Cuban,  it  forms  a  magnificent  body  of  land  ready  for  cul- 
tivation. The  owners  and  squatters  have  merely  to  put 
in  the  plow  and  turn  over  the  fertile  soil,  and  they  can 
avail  themselves  of  block-houses  and  barracks  for 
dwellings  and  cattle-sheds.  A  primitive  railroad  runs 
alongside  the  trocha  (rather,  perhaps,  it  should  be  said 
that  the  trocha  was  projected  to  follow  the  railroad) 
from  Jucaro  on  the  south  coast  to  San  Fernando  on  the 
north,  and  thus  the  Spaniards  had  a  triple  line  of  de- 
fense; despite  which,  however,  the  Cubans  defied  them 
at  every  point  and  skipped  about  pretty  much  as  they 
pleased.  Down  the  line  a  few  miles  from  Ciego  de  Avila 
an  American  colony  has  been  started,  at  Ceballos,  where 
there  are  already  hundreds  of  acres  under  cultivation. 

The  soil  and  scenery  are  of  similar  character  all  the 
way  to  Puerto  Principe,  or  Camagiiey,  which  is  343  miles 
from  Havana  and  200  from  Santiago.  The  great  plains 
are  covered  with  the  rankly-growing  Parana  and  Guinea 
grass,  in  some  fields  of  which  the  sleek  and  shining  cattle 
may  be  seen  feeding,  with  this  rich  fodder  meeting  above 
their  backs.  This  is  undoubtedly  the  land  for  cattle  rais- 
ing, where  the  grass  grows  the  year  rounJ,  where  the 
animals  need  no  shelter,  and  where  running  streams  are 
frequent  enough  for  watering  them  without  recourse  to 
artificial  means. 

Puerto  Principe,  to  which  the  railroad  builders  have 
restored  its  ancient  Indian  name  of  Carnagiiey,  is  the  most 
important  city  between  Matanzas  and  Santiago,  with 
more  than  forty  thousand  people,  and  possessing  a  high 
and  healthy  location.  Since  the  Cuba  railway  reached  it 
Camagiiey  has  taken  a  new  lease  of  life.     It  was  ever  a 


84         OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

city  with  a  past,  living  nobody  knew  how,  but  probably 
on  the  profits  of  cattle-raising  on  the  adjoining  plains.  Its 
sole  connection  with  the  outside  world  (aside  from  that 
apology  for  a  trail,  the  so-called  caniino  real,  or  royal 
road)  was  by  means  of  a  railway  45  miles  in  length  to  the 
port  of  Nuevitas.  This  line  has  the  reputation  of  being 
the  first  ever  constructed  within  Spanish  dominions ;  and 
there  is  a  locomotive  running  on  it  which  has  been  in 
service  for  more  than  sixty  years,  and  is  still  doing 
active  duty ;  though  it  was  in  the  repair-shop  at  the  time 
of  my  visit. 

One  would  hardly  believe  that  Puerto  Principe  could 
have  been  sacked  by  pirates,  being  so  far  inland;  yet  it 
once  suffered  terribly  at  the  hands  of  ruthless  Morgan 
and  his  men,  in  1665,  who  marched  hither  from  the  south 
coast,  attacked  the  forts,  captured  them,  and  shut  up  all 
the  inhabitants  in  the  churches,  where  most  of  them 
starved,  or  were  tortured  to  death  by  the  fiends  from  the 
coast.  The  pirates  secured  a  great  amount  of  plunder, 
including  not  only  gold  and  jewels,  but  five  hundred 
cattle.  Some  of  the  old  churches  in  which  the  unfor- 
tunate people  were  confined  are  still  standing,  and  are 
vastly  interesting,  their  walls  massive,  buttressed,  and 
their  interiors  adorned  with  ancient  paintings. 

Since  the  completion  of  the  Cuba  railroad  and  the  re- 
moval to  this  city  of  the  general  offices  of  the  company. 
Camagiiey  has  taken  a  new  appearance.  It  is  still  a  city 
more  of  the  past  than  of  the  present,  typically  and  archai- 
cally Spanish  in  its  architecture,  with  its  plaza,  cathedral, 
quaint  old  churches  and  monasteries,  its  dwellings  with 
massive  walls  and  grated  windows.  Of  itself,  it  might  not 
be  considered  attractive  enough  to  draw  hither  the  hosts 
of  tourists  for  whom  the  railway  company  has  provided 


BETWEEN  HAVANA  AND  SANTIAGO  85 

accommodations  in  its  new  and  vast  hotel,  which  wis 
once  a  barrack  capable  of  quartering  two  thousand  men. 

This  immense  building  has  been  renovated  and  made 
into  a  perfectly  palatial  edifice.  It  has  suites  of  roorrls 
with  all  sorts  of  baths  attached,  courts  and  gardens,  de- 
tached buildings  for  the  cuisine,  with  pillared  corridors 
connecting  with  the  main  structure,  and  a  roof-garden 
from  which  an  extensive  view  is  open  in  every  direction 
of  Camagiiey's  surrounding  plains.  Of  itself,  I  liave  said, 
modest  Puerto  Principe  would  not  consider  itself  suffi- 
ciently attractive  to  win  hither  the  money-scattering  tour- 
ists ;  but  with  the  great  hotel  as  an  adjunct,  and  with  the 
salubrious  atmosphere  of  its  high  plains,  lying  mid-seas 
and  healthful  to  a  surpassing  degree,  there  is  a  good  pros- 
pect for  it  to  become  a  winter  resort  in  the  near  future. 

Beyond  Camagiiey,  fifty  miles'  traveling  brings  us  to 
the  eastern  border  of  Puerto  Principe  province,  in  the 
center  of  which  its  chief  city  is  located,  and  seventy-five 
miles  distant  is  Victoria  de  las  Tunas,  where  the  train 
halts  twenty  minutes  for  another  of  those  delicious  meals 
which  the  "  Cuba  "  caterer  knows  so  well  how  to  serve. 
There  is  scant  time  to  look  about,  but  from  the  observa- 
tion-car we  have  obtained  views  all  along  the  road  that 
form  a  continuous  panorama  of  tropical  scenery,  increas- 
ingly profuse  in  the  strange  and  varied  forms  of  vegeta- 
tion so  uncommon  to  northern  eyes. 

The  forest  trees  are  now  crowding  upon  the  rails,  from 
which  they  have  hitherto  been  held  back  by  the  ax,  and 
only  at  the  occasional  openings  in  the  woods,  by  courtesy 
called  stations,  do  we  see  any  extensive  areas  of  field  or 
plain.  And  at  every  station  there  are  big  piles  of  timber, 
rough-hewn  by  the  axmen  in  the  forest,  huge  logs  of 
precious  cedar  and  mahogany,   fifty  and  sixty   feet  in 


86         OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

length  and  two  feet  through,  perhaps  exceeding  these 
dimensions.  There  are,  also,  native  ox-carts  laden  with 
these  valuable  woods,  and  the  natives  themselves  in  num- 
bers, engaged  in  bringing  in  great  logs  from  the  forest, 
the  mahogany-producing  section  of  which  is  becoming 
more  and  more  difficult  to  reach,  and  fast  receding  to  the 
mountains.  After  viewing  the  millions  of  feet  piled  up 
at  the  stations  in  Santiago  province  and  loaded  on  the 
cars,  it  is  easy  to  understand  that  there  is,  or  may  be,  a 
glut  in  the  cedar  and  mahogany  market.  And  yet, 
through  the  mysterious  workings  of  the  "  trusts,"  the 
price  of  furniture  made  from  the  latter  wood  does  not 
decrease  correspondingly  with  cost  of  material! 

Most  of  the  stations  are  names  merely,  with  now  and 
then  two  or  three  open-work  bohios  occupied  by  the  cus- 
tomary Cubans  with  muddy  complexions  and  mud- 
bespattered  garments — such  as  they  are.  But  when  these 
forests  are  cleared  and  the  daylight  let  into  the  openings, 
where  the  rich  humus  is  so  deep  as  to  be  inexhaustible, 
there  will  in  all  probability  be  houses  enough  around  the 
stations.  At  present,  the  prospect  is  far  from  encour- 
aging, except  in  its  immensity  of  opportunity  for  the  right 
man  who  shall  drop  into  the  right  place,  in  this  virgin 
spot  of  Cuba.  It  is  more  than  a  "  spot,"  too,  being  per- 
haps a  hundred  miles  long,  lying  adjacent  to  the  railroad 
and  extending  back  for  miles  and  miles. 

Just  before  dark  we  reach  the  station  of  Cacocum, 
which  is  of  importance  chiefly  on  account  of  its  stage 
connection  with  the  town  of  Holguin,  whence  there  is  a 
railroad  to  the  port  of  Gibara  on  the  north  coast.  Why 
nobody  completes  the  few  miles  necessary  to  make  an 
all-rail  line  between  these  two  important  points,  is  a 
Cuban  conundrum  which  everybody  seems  to  have  "  given 


BETWEEN  HAVANA  AND  SANTIAGO  87 

up."  The  only  means  of  conveyance  at  present  are  a  few- 
shaky  stages,  or  fat-bodied  old  volantes,  which  may  be 
seen  lying  alongside  the  platform  like  stranded  porpoises. 

In  the  gathering  gloom,  at  the  next  flag  station  beyond 
Cacocum,  a  clearing  in  the  forest  is  visible,  where  an 
enterprising  American  has  begun  operations,  with  a  saw- 
mill and  improved  machinery,  looking  toward  utilizing  the 
native  products,  especially  the  timber  and  cabinet  woods. 
Lewiston  is  the  name  of  the  "  siding  "  where  two  hundred 
acres  of  forest  trees  have  already  been  removed,  and  the 
'*  Cuban  Products  Company,  Limited,"  the  title  of  the  firm 
which  owns  70,000  acres  of  land  here  in  one  large  tract, 
a  portion  of  which  has  been  stocked  with  cattle. 

Darkness  has  entirely  enveloped  us  by  the  time  Alto 
Cedro  is  reached,  and  we  consider  this  as  a  misfortune,  for 
Alto  Cedro  is  destined  to  become  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant points  along  the  line,  although  at  present  con- 
sisting chiefly  of  a  few  huts,  a  station  building,  and  a 
general  store.  For,  here  the  main  west-east  line  diverges 
southward,  while  a  northerly  spur  is  being  constructed  to 
Nipe  Bay,  which  is  known  as  the  finest  natural  port  in 
Cuba. 

The  name  "  Alto  Cedro,"  the  Tall  Cedar,  gives  a  hint  of 
the  forestal  character  in  this  region  where  the  big  trees 
prevail,  and  where  the  really  tropical  province  of  San- 
tiago holds  promise  of  vegetal  wonders.  This  spot  is 
right  in  its  very  center,  north-south,  east-west,  and  as  the 
road  strikes  southwardly  to  the  coast  it  plunges  into  a 
perfect  wilderness  of  wonders  belonging  to  the  vegetable 
kingdom.  As  it  crosses  the  headwaters  of  the  Cauto  and 
its  tributaries,  great  trees  crowd  upon  the  track,  as  they 
did  a  hundred  miles  further  back ;  but  here  they  display, 
if  possible,  a  greater  wealth  of  epiphytic  and  parasitic 


88         OUR  WEST  INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

plants,  plastered  upon  their  branches  and  affixed  to  their 
vast  trunks. 

It  seemed  to  me,  many  miles  back  on  the  road,  that  I 
had  seen  nearly  all  the  wild  orchids  in  the  world  sitting 
astride  the  limbs  of  the  forest  trees  or  hanging  from  their 
branches,  but  here  they  quite  bewildered  me  with  their 
variety  and  profusion.  There  were  great  air-plants,  some 
with  spikes  of  blossoms,  some  with  great  display  of 
leaves;  some  were  attached  to  the  lianas  which  draped 
every  tree,  some  affixed  to  the  rough  bark,  some  again 
suspended  in  mid-air  to  a  slender  "  lialine,"  or  cordage- 
like vine  that  came  down  from  somewhere  up  above,  from 
out  the  canopy  of  verdure — and  there  it  swung,  an  object 
of  exceeding  beauty,  yet  only  one  of  thousands,  and  per- 
haps millions,  in  that  forest  pierced  by  the  parallel  rails 
which  reached  from  somewhere  to  somewhere,  but  here 
were  apparently  drifting  off  into  nowhere. 

The  silk-cottons  were  the  grandest,  as  they  towered 
above  all  other  trees  of  the  lowlands,  everywhere,  and  the 
burdens  they  bore  of  parasites  and  epiphytes  were  com- 
mensurate with  their  vast  bulk.  They  are,  perhaps,  the 
only  large  trees  which  that  piratical  parasite,  the  "  wild 
fig,"  dares  not  attack,  probably  on  account  of  their  bulky 
bole  and  extensive  buttresses. 

All  the  trees  were  woven  together  by  lianas  and 
hejucos,  the  vines  and  bush-ropes,  which  seemed  of  in- 
terminable length,  and  which  were  comparable  only  to 
the  rigging  of  a  Brobdignagian  ship,  in  their  entirety. 
They  lined  the  lengths  of  forest  aisles,  they  formed  a 
ligneous  lattice-work  beside  the  track,  which  it  almost 
seemed  necessary  for  the  engineer  to  cut  with  a  machete 
ere  he  could  force  the  engine  through. 

The  scene  changes  at  or  about  Moron,  or  Dos  Caminos, 


<     f       I    f     t     t 


BETWEEN  HAVANA  AND  SANTIAGO   89 

where  different,  but  equally  beautiful  effects  are  presented 
by  nature  subdued  and  cultivated.  After  passing  through 
a  tropical  wilderness,  we  suddenly  emerge  into  a  veritable 
paradise,  so  far  as  its  vegetal  products  are  concerned. 
We  are  now  in  a  region  of  rounded  hills,  each  hill  or 
knoll  crowned  with  a  group  of  palms,  or  a  single  tree 
with  soft  and  feathery  foliage  outlined  against  the  sky. 
Sometimes  the  hills  have  palm-thatched  bohios  perched 
upon  them,  and  their  slopes  covered  with  coffee  trees, 
cacaos,  mangos,  oranges,  and  limes.  The  products  of 
these  Hesperian  gardens  are  brought  to  the  stations  for 
sale,  as  at  Cristo,  where  the  primitive  stalls  are  full  of 
gleaming  fruits  of  every  hue  and  flavor.  And  thus  it  is. 
all  the  way  to  Santiago:  the  track  bordered  with  fruit 
trees,  the  air  filled  with  fragrance,  so  that  you  may  know 
what  you  are  passing  through,  even  though  it  be  night. 


THE  CUBAN  AS  HE  WAS  AND  AS  HE  IS 

The  Cubano  and  his  costume — Why  he  wears  a  dirt-color  gar- 
ment—  As  to  his  ancestry  —  What  the  Spaniards  did  to  the 
Indians  —  A  Cuban  on  the  Cubans  —  Why  the  islanders  do 
not  indulge  in  fire-water  —  Their  temperance  and  honesty  — " 
Common  people  kind  and  courteous  —  Where  blood  is  thicker 
than  water  —  The  commercial  instinct  of  the  Spaniards  — 
Not  hospitably  inclined  —  Hard-headed  and  hard-hearted  — 
An  Asturian  custom  —  The  Asturians  in  Cuba  —  Upper 
classes  cold  and  calculating  —  The  author  entertained  in  a 
bohio  —  An  erstwhile  revolutionist  —  How  the  money  sharks 
are  depriving  the  patriots  of  their  pensions  —  Political  agita- 
tion —  Don  Tomas  and  General  Maximo  Gomez  —  Cuba's 
greatest  Cuban  not  a  native  —  Brief  biography  of  President 
Palma  —  The  Cuban  not  incurably  lazy  —  But  he  will  not 
change  his  costumhres  —  He  plows  with  a  stick  and  tortures 
his  oxen  —  The  Spanish-American  innately  cruel  —  An 
encounter  with  some  natives  —  The  senorita  and  her  cigar- 
ette —  Something  about  the  Cubana  —  Society,  schools,  and 
churches  —  The  feeling  of  security  in  Cuba  —  Contrasted 
with  Mexico  —  Brigands,  policemen,  and  rural  guards  —  Few 
locks  on  doors  of  country  houses  —  Bull-fights  banished  and 
cock-fights  "  on  the  sly,"  only. 

THE  subject  for  vivisection  in  this  chapter  is  the 
Cuban.  Perhaps  I  used  the  term  vivisection 
inadvertently,  for  that  implies  the  cutting  up 
of  something  alive,  when  there  are  people  who  declare 
that  the  Cuban  does  not  come  under  that  category. 
He  has  practically  been  dead  a  long  time,  they  say,  but 
his  friends  have  forgotten  to  bury  him.    That  is  a  dis- 

90 


THE  CUBAN  AS  HE  WAS  AND  IS    91 

torted  view,  however,  due  to  prejudice,  putting  which 
aside,  I  say,  the  Cuban  is  still  very  much  alive — for  a 
corpse. 

The  first  one  of  my  acquaintance  I  met  nearly  a  quarter 
of  a  century  ago,  and  I  can  picture  him  yet,  as  he  appeared 
to  my  astonished  vision  clad  in  flowing  pantalones — which 
are  a  sort  of  a  cross  between  "  pants,"  trousers,  and  a 
petticoat — a  shirt  once  white,  but  at  that  time  the  color  of 
his  native  soil,  and  worn  outside  his  nether  garments,  the 
latter  held  up  by  a  leather  belt,  into  which  was  thrust  a 
machete,  or  Spanish  cutlass. 

His  feet,  otherwise  bare,  were  stuck  into  Moorish 
alpargatas,  or  hempen  sandals,  which  were  held  in  place 
by  a  thong  between  the  big  toe  and  the  one  next  to  it  on 
each  foot.  On  his  head  was  a  tattered  sombrero,  and  in 
his  mouth  the  inevitable  and  deadly  cigarette.  That  is, 
deadly  to  anybody  save  Cubans  or  Mexicans;  but  they 
are  "  proof." 

Nearly  a  quarter-century  elapsed,  as  intimated,  between 
my  first  visit  to  Cuba  and  my  last ;  but  this  last  time  I  saw 
the  same  old  Cuban,  puffing  the  same  sort  of  cigarette, 
and  wearing,  apparently,  that  same  old  shirt.  Now,  I  do 
not  mean  to  say  that  the  Cuban  never  dons  a  clean  camisa, 
as  he  calls  it;  for  I  have  seen  it  white  and  shining, 
starched  as  stiff  as  a  board,  and  standing  out  all  round 
him  like  the  old-fashioned  crinoline  our  mothers  used  to 
wear.  But — and  it  seems  a  curious  circumstance — the 
every-day  apparel  of  the  Cxihano,  especially  of  the  paisano, 
or  countryman,  though  perhaps  originally  white,  is  gen- 
erally dirt  color. 

I  never  ventured  to  inquire  why  this  was  thus,  but 
have  drawn  the  conclusion  from  my  own  inner  con- 
sciousness— as  the  Dutchman  drew  the  elephant — that  it 


92         OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

came  from  his  many  years  of  fighting  the  Spaniards. 
That  is,  Uke  certain  birds  and  four-footed  animals, 
which  change  their  feathers  or  fur  from  brown  in  the 
summer  to  white  in  the  winter,  and  vice  versa,  he  has 
instinctively  adopted  the  dirt-color  arrangement  as  a 
sort  of  ''  protective  coloration"  scheme.  Being  then  of 
*'  the  earth  earthy,"  he  was  rendered  less  conspicuous 
to  the  Spaniard  in  war-time ;  and  now  that  peace  reigns 
in  Cuba,  he  either  cannot,  or  cares  not  to,  get  rid  of 
the  habit. 

Perhaps  he  doesn't  want  to ;  for  in  a  land  where  the 
soil  is  mostly  a  red  and  tenacious  clay,  which  stains 
everything  with  which  it  comes  in  contact,  the  incen- 
tives to  cleanliness  are  not  overwhelmingly  abun- 
dant. We  will  give  the  Cuban  the  benefit  of  the  doubt, 
and  admit  that  while  the  average  paisano  might  appear 
cleaner  than  he  is,  and  assuredly  can't  look  dirtier,  it 
may  be  altogether  the  fault  of  the  climate — as  Biddy 
the  cook  declared  when  she  burned  the  steak. 

As  to  the  ancestry  of  the  Ciihano,  let  me  remark  that 
he  is  a  composite  reproduction  of  Spaniard,  Indian,  and 
African,  with  a  complexion  depending  upon  the  racial 
predominance  of  white,  red,  or  black  man  amongst  his 
progenitors.  There  are  still  white  men  in  Cuba,  and 
there  are  also  many  black  men,  with  every  gradation 
between  them ;  there  are  no  longer  any  red,  or  copper- 
colored  individuals,  known  as  Indians.  This  comes  from 
a  cheerful  habit  the  Spaniards  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury had,  of  trying  their  swords  on  the  craniums  of  the 
Indians  almost  every  morning  before  breakfast.  Orig- 
inally there  were  several  hundred  aborigines  in  Cuba; 
but  when  the  Spaniards  got  through  with  them  there 
were  not  enough  to  populate  a  vacant  lot, 


THE  CUBAN  AS  HE  WAS  AND  IS         93 

*'  Upon  these  Lambes  so  meek,  so  qualified  and  endued 
of  their  Maker,"  (wrote  Las  Casas,  according  to 
'' Purchas  his  Pilgrims,"  published  1625)  "entered  the 
Spaniards,  as  Wolves,  as  Lyons,  as  Tygers,  most  cruel, 
of  long  time  famished,  and  did  naught  else  than  tear 
them  in  pieces,  kill  them,  martyr  them,  and  torment 
them,  by  strange  sort  of  cruelties  neither  seen  nor  read, 
nor  heard  of  the  like ;  so  far  forth  that  of  above  three 
millions  of  Souls  that  were  in  the  isle  of  Hispaniola — and 
that  we  have  seen — there  are  not  now  above  two  hundred 
Natives  of  the  Country  left.     .     .     . 

''  The  cause  why  the  Spanish  have  destroyed  such  an 
infinite  number  of  Souls  hath  been  only  their  desire  to 
get  Gold  and  to  enrich  themselves  in  a  short  time ;  or, 
to  say  in  a  word,  their  Avarice  and  Ambition.  And  by 
this  means  have  died  so  many  Millions,  without  Faith 
and  without  Sacrament. 

''  Further  note  here,  that  in  whatever  Part  of  the  Indies 
the  Spanish  have  come,  they  have  enormously  exercised 
against  the  Indians,  these  innocent  Peoples,  the  cruelties 
aforesaid,  and  invented  day  by  day  new  Torments,  huger 
and  monstrouser;  wherefore  God  also  gave  them  over 
to  fall  headlong  down  with  a  more  extream  Downfall, 
into  a  reprobate  sense." 

What  the  Spaniards  did  in  Hispaniola,  or  Santo 
Domingo,  they  also  did  in  Cuba,  with  the  result  as  stated 
above.  The  Indians  are  gone ;  Spanish  excesses  have 
been  restrained ;  but  Spanish  character  is  the  same  as 
it  was  three  hundred  years  ago. 

*'  The  Cuban,"  says  a  native  writer,  "  is  a  descendant  of 
the  Spanish  colonist  that  came  to  the  island  with  Colum- 
bus, and  of  the  female  Indians  that  were  in  Cuba  when 
discovered.     The  negro  and  mulatto  born  in  the  island 


94         OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

is  also  called  Cuban,  but  for  the  mere  fact  of  being  born 
here ;  the  mulatto  is  a  mixture  of  the  white  man  and  the 
negress.  So  the  real  Cuban  is  a  descendant  of  the 
Spanish  colonist  and  the  female  Indian." 

It  is  well  to  be  accurately  informed  at  the  outset ;  but 
we  will  extend  the  term,  Cuban,  to  include  all  residents 
of  the  island,  whether  boasting  sanguineous  connection 
(on  the  female  side)  with  the  long-extinct  aborigines, 
or  derived  by  direct  importation  from  Spain,  the  "  mother 
country  "  of  both  Don  and  donkey. 

The  aim  of  this  roundabout  ramble  into  the  field  of 
history  is  to  show  how  the  Cuban  came  by  his  vices  and 
his  virtues — such  as  he  has.  The  aboriginal  inhabitants 
were  gentle  and  refined — for  savages — and  very  abstemi- 
ous. Strange  to  say,  the  Spaniards  were  also  abstemious, 
so  far  as  abstention  from  fire-water  is  concerned ;  but 
the  Spaniard  of  history  has  established  a  record  for 
indulgence  in  carnal  vices  second  to  none  other  in  the 
world.  These  he  indulged  at  the  expense  of,  first,  the 
Indians,  then  the  Negroes,  then  the  native  Cubans  of 
whatever  complexion. 

Hence,  racially  speaking,  the  Cuban  comes  naturally 
enough  by  his  instincts  of  cruelty;  but  through  inheri- 
tance from  neither  one  race  nor  the  other  is  he  inclined  to 
indulge  in  strong  drink. 

Perhaps  the  noteworthy  lack  of  crime  in  the  island 
is  owing  to  the  temperance  of  the  islanders.  In  a  local 
guide  to  Havana,  written  and  published  by  a  native,  I 
read :  "  The  Cuban  is  not  given  to  the  strong  drinks. 
It  is  very  seldom  that  a  drunk  man  is  seen  in  Havana" ; 
and  I  may  add,  or  anywhere  else,  as  to  that  matter.  I 
have  been  in  every  one  of  the  six  provinces  of  Cuba, 
beginning  at  Pinar   del   Rio  and   ending  at   Santiago, 


THE  CUBAN  AS  HE  WAS  AND  IS    95 

reversing  my  journey  as  far  as  Camagiiey  and  Nuevitas, 
and  have  yet  to  see  a  Cuban  under  the  influence  of 
liquor.  I  may  have  seen  some  drunken  men  on  previous 
visits ;  but  have  no  recollection  of  the  fact. 

It  may  have  been  owing  to  their  "  capacity,"  for  most 
assuredly  the  Cubans  do  imbibe  largely  of  light  wines, 
chiefly  claret  of  the  Spanish  variety ;  or  it  may  have  been 
because  the  kind  of  liquor  they  drink  does  not  readily 
intoxicate.  One  might,  in  fact,  drink  a  bucketful  of  the 
vino  corriente,  the  vin  ordinaire  imported  from 
Spain,  without  getting  even  *'  half-seas  over."  It  is  on 
every  table  of  the  Spanish  restaurants,  and  is  almost  as 
free  as  water;  but,  whether  it  be  owing  to  the  kind  of 
liquor  the  Cuban  is  prone  to  imbibe,  or  to  his  superior 
"  capacity,"  the  fact  remains  that  he  rarely  gets  drunk. 

Neither  is  the  native,  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to 
observe,  any  more  given  to  dishonesty  than  to  drunken- 
ness. With  the  sole  exception  of  the  cabmen  (who  are 
generally  considered  as  an  exempt  class  all  over  the 
world),  the  Cubans  practice  few  if  any  of  those  despic- 
able tricks  by  which  the  traveler  is  forced  to  give  up 
his  change,  loose  and  otherwise.  Make  a  bargain  with 
any  of  them  (cabmen  and  drivers  excepted),  and  they 
will  generally  stick  to  the  agreement;  or  if  they  back 
out,  will  do  so  from  some  motive  other  than  pecuniary. 

It  is  remarkable  that,  operating  upon  such  diverse 
elements  as  the  Indian  races  of  America  and  the  imported 
Africans,  the  Spaniards  of  the  old  days  should  have 
evolved  a  mixed  people  more  or  less  homogeneous. 
The  Spanish  characteristics  have  been  ineffaceably 
stamped  upon  these  people,  and  it  is  quite  natural  that 
the  natives  should  look  toward  them,  rather  than  toward 
the  Anglo-Saxons  from  the  States. 


96         OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

"  Blood  is  thicker  than  water  ''  holds  good  here,  and 
this  is  why,  after  having  suffered  so  terribly  from  Span- 
ish atrocities,  the  Cubans  not  only  tolerate  the  Spaniards, 
but  hug  them  to  their  hearts.  The  Spaniards  still  con- 
trol all  the  great  business  affairs  of  the  country ;  the 
streets  of  the  capital  are  full  of  Catalan  and  Asturian 
draymen,  and  the  cafes  of  Andalusian  waiters.  It  must 
be  that  the  Cuban  character  is  long-suffering,  if  not 
pusillanimous,  when  Cubans  allow  themselves  to  be 
overridden    (as   they   are)    by   the    insolent    Spaniards. 

The  latter  have  the  business  faculty  developed  to  an 
extraordinary  degree,  while  the  Cubans  in  general  do 
not  possess  it  at  all.  As  bull-fights  are  now  banished 
the  island  and  cock-fights  prohibited  and  indulged 
in  only  "  on  the  sly,"  the  bloodthirsty  instincts  of  the 
Spaniards  are  now  turned  into  another  channel.  They 
are  still  after  their  pound  of  flesh,  and  if  blood  flows 
incidentally  to  the  getting  of  it,  so  much  the  more  to  their 
liking.  The  Spaniards  in  America  always  were,  and 
probably  always  will  be,  keen  in  the  pursuit  of  the 
"  almighty  dollar."  After  they  had  sucked,  vampire- 
like, the  last  drop  of  blood  from  aboriginal  veins,  they 
turned  to  exploiting  the  native  resources  of  the  regions 
they  happened  to  be  in,  and  only  as  a  very  last  resort 
took  up  with  agriculture — the  raising  of  sugar-cane  and 
tobacco. 

At  present  the  Spaniards  are  commercially  supreme 
in  Cuba,  for  while  you  may  *'  scratch  a  Turk  and  find 
a  Tartar,"  you  cannot  scratch  a  Cuban  in  commerce 
without  finding  a  Spanish  Creole  beneath  the  epidermis. 
These  Spaniards  in  Cuba,  regarded  from  an  Anglo- 
Saxon  view-point,  are  not  by  any  means  hospitably 
inclined.     Most  of  them  are  of  Asturian  descent,  and 


THE  CUBAN  AS  HE  WAS  AND  IS    97 

)Ou  know  the  Asturlan  custom  when  a  male  child  is 
born:  to  crack  it  over  the  head  with  a  plate.  If  the 
plate  is  broken  the  child  is  considered  the  right  sort  to 
rear;  but  if  it  does  not  break,  and  the  youngster's  skull 
is  cracked  instead,  it  is  held  not  to  be  worth  the  cost  of 
rearing.  So  the  hard-headed  ones  survive,  and  many 
of  them  come  to  Cuba,  where  they  engage  in  business, 
to  the  exclusion  of  the  real  owners  of  the  island. 

It  is  significant  of  the  strength  of  the  Asturians  in 
Cuba  that  there  is  a  single  society  in  Havana  containing 
more  than  I4,cxx)  members.  It  owns  its  clubhouse  in 
the  capital,  maintains  a  hospital  and  a  magnificent  sana- 
torium in  the  suburbs,  insures  the  lives  of  its  members 
for  a  small  annual  fee,  and  is  altogether  one  of  the 
wealthiest  societies  of  its  kind  in  the  world. 

Respecting  my  remark,  that  the  lack  of  the  hospitable 
trait  is  apparent  at  a  glance,  I  recall  some  experiences 
of  my  own,  in  connection  with  my  mission  to  this  island 
in  1891-92,  to  invite  Cuba  to  participate  in  the  Expo- 
sition of  1893.  It  was  the  chief  part  of  my  mission 
to  secure  the  appointment  of  a  local  commission  by  the 
captain  general,  for  the  purpose  of  collecting  and 
arranging  the  various  exhibits  of  the  island.  Four  weeks 
passed  before  this  was  accomplished,  but  when  the 
captain  general  had  his  list  published  it  was  seen  that 
he  had  included  nearly  every  man  of  importance  in 
every  province.  There  were  thirty-five  men  in  this  local 
junta,  nearly  every  man  entitled  to  be  called  ''  excelen- 
tisimo  "  including  two  real  marquises,  bearing  the  his- 
toric titles  of  Balboa  and  Duquesne. 

There  were  several  of  the  great  cigar  manufacturers, 
who  produced  some  famous  brands ;  yet  I  have  no 
recollection  of  having  been  offered  a  single  cigar.     More 


98         OUR  WEST  INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

than  this,  though  I  was  for  a  time  their  coadjutor,  offici- 
ally accredited  to  their  Government,  and  in  a  sense 
their  giiest,  not  one  of  those  Spaniards  seemed  to  have 
entertained  the  notion  that  it  would  be  a  graceful  act 
to  dine  me  or  wine  me.  They  appeared  to  have 
exhausted  their  hospitalities  when  they  had  assured  me 
that  their  houses  and  all  they  contained  were  mine;  yet 
all  the  time  in  desperate  fear  that  I  might  take  them  at 
their  word. 

Letters  of  introduction?  Yes,  barrels  of  them,  so  to 
speak ;  but,  when  you  have  once  heard  the  money-seeking 
Spaniard  ask  of  you,  in  a  cold  and  calculating  voice,  on 
the  presentation  of  such  a  letter,  "  Well,  what  do  you 
want  ?  "  you  are  not  in  eager  haste  to  present  another. 

In  pleasing  contrast  to  my  receptions  by  the  "  upper 
classes  "  in  Cuba,  as  well  as  in  Spain  and  Mexico,  I 
place  my  invariable  experiences  with  the  poorer  people. 
It  may  be  the  universally  leveling  and  sweetening  effect 
of  dire  poverty,  continued  through  generations,  as  in 
Spain ;  or  it  may  be  that  where  the  wants  are  fewest 
and  the  aim  is  humblest,  the  visitor  is  not  regarded 
as  an  object  of  exploitation. 

In  one  of  my  rambles  I  came  across  the  palm-leaf 
bohio  of  Sefior  Don  Valentini  Betancourt,  snuggled 
securely  beneath  the  shade  of  a  great  mahogany  tree. 
I  had  taken  a  long  walk  in  the  woods,  and  the  clearing 
in  which  stood  the  bohio  of  Senor  Betancourt  was 
separated  from  the  last  one  by  more  than  two  miles. 
The  forest  was  dense,  the  trail  obscure,  the  hour  late, 
and  quite  naturally  I  stopped  at  the  hut  for  information, 
which  was  cheerfully  given. 

Sefior  Betancourt  was  clad  in  a  ragged  shirt,  worn 
outside,  extremely  dirty,  as  well  as  expansive  pantalones, 


THE  CUBAN  AS  ME  WAS  AND  IS    99 

and  his  bare  feet  were  thrust  into,  or  rather,  perched 
upon  rope-soled  "  alpargatas,"  kept  in  place  by  thongs 
between  his  toes.  A  shapeless  sombrero  topped  Sefior 
Betancourt's  frowsy  locks  and  completed  his  attire; 
though  mention  is  due  to  the  big  machete  hanging  at  his 
side  like  a  rude  sword,  and,  of  course,  the  ever  present 
cigarette  between  his  lips. 

The  roof  of  the  bohio  was  of  palm  thatch,  the  floor 
was  of  native  mud,  and  skating  across  the  latter  were 
numerous  ducks  and  hens,  which  evidently  roosted  with 
the  family,  at  night,  in  the  adjoining  room,  where  the 
bamboo  bed  was  raised  about  a  foot  from  the  floor. 
There  was  only  one  bed  visible;  but  several  hammocks 
swung  from  the  rafters,  and  the  roof  was  otherwise 
adorned  with  strips  of  pork  and  tasajo,  or  dried  beef, 
onions,  bananas,  and  plantains,  among  which  hung  a 
hoop  of  hejiico  or  native  vine,  containing  a  chattering 
parrot. 

Judging  from  their  attitude  of  smiling  expectancy, 
the  family  were  penetrated  with  extreme  admiration  of 
their  chance  guest,  and  were  anxious  to  do  him  every 
honor  possible.  They  were  not  inquisitive,  yet  they  con- 
trived to  convey  to  the  stranger  a  consuming  interest  in 
his  far-distant  family,  and  expressed  the  hope  that  next 
time  he  honored  them  with  a  visit  he  would  bring  his 
wife  and  babies  with  him. 

Sefior  Betancourt  admitted  that  he  had  been  a  rabid 
revolutionist  during  the  war,  and  that  he  had  hidden 
out  in  those  very  woods  around  his  dwelling  for  many  a 
long  and  weary  month.  It  wasn't  so  bad,  he  said,  for 
the  Spaniards  rarely  found  him  out,  and  when  they  did 
all  he  had  to  do  was  to  "  cut  and  run  for  it."  His  chief 
concern  was  for  his  family,  which  sometimes  shared  his 


loo       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

hiding-places  aiid  sometimes  ventured  home  to  the  hut 
and  garden.  He  had  no  very  poignant  grief  to  express 
over  the  impossibility  of  doing  any  work,  during  the 
days  of  the  revolutionary  period ;  and  in  fact  seemed  to 
regard  the  blessings  of  freedom  as  of  somewhat  doubtful 
value,  won  and  preserved  as  they  were  by  constant  toil. 

Toil  and  Senor  Betancourt  evidently  had  had  a  falling 
out,  long  since ;  but  he  had  no  grievance  against  the 
world.  Quite  the  contrary,  he  believed  it  was  a  very 
good  sort  of  world,  now  that  the  Spaniards  were  sup- 
pressed and  one  could  do  as  he  pleased.  He  would  like 
to  be  allowed  to  carry  a  gun ;  but  as  the  license  cost  $15, 
and  there  was  not  much  to  shoot,  after  all,  it  was  just  as 
well,  perhaps.  He  hoped  to  get  his  pension  money  soon, 
and  in  point  of  fact  had,  like  too  many  others  of  his 
countrymen,  already  hypothecated  it  to  the  "  money 
sharks  "  for  about  25  per  cent,  of  its  full  value. 

"  But  what  could  you  ?  "  he  asked  with  a  shrug  of  his 
shoulders.  *'  We  have  waited  for  years  for  that  pension, 
and  25  per  cent,  is  better  than  nothing." 

"  One  hundred  per  cent,  is  better  still,"  I  suggested. 

"  Yes,  perhaps ;  but  think  of  the  long  time  to  wait, 
Senor!  Perhaps  a  year,  and  we  may  all  be  dead  in  that 
time !  Noiv  is  better  than  by  and  by,  especially  when  it 
is  to  have  money  to  spend !  " 

The  Oh-be-joyful  Present  was  vastly  more  to  him  than 
the  doubtful  Future,  even  with  a  golden  spoon  in  its 
mouth. 

No,  the  Cuban  has  not  changed  one  whit  since  we 
first  became  acquainted,  away  back  in  the  "  eighties." 
The  waves  of  the  American  invasion  may  have  rolled 
over  him,  may  have  tumbled  him  about  in  the  surf,  and 
knocked  him  off  his   feet;   but   he   smilingly   emerged, 


THE  CUBAN  AS  HE  WA§  AN^ilS  :  is^' 

relighted  his  temporarily  extinguished  cigarette,  and 
kept  on  his  humble  way. 

At  least,  so  it  appears  to  me,  for  he  still  pursues  his 
se'rene  though  aimless  career,  apparently  unconcerned 
whether  General  Maximo,  "  Don  Tomas,"  or  some  un- 
known American,  occupies  the  position  of  supreme  power. 
There  have  been  agitations,  "  political  upheavals,"  and 
gritos,  for  this,  that,  and  the  other  aspirant  for  political 
honors;  but  at  heart  the  average  Cuban  remains 
unchanged. 

The  heroes  of  his  heart  are  the  aforementioned  "  Don 
Tomas  "  and  General  Maximo  Gomez,  the  "  Washington 
of  Cuba,"  who  lives  in  a  modest  house  on  an  obscure 
street  near  the  Prado  in  Havana.  It  may  seem  a  con- 
tradiction of  terms,  but  the  greatest  Cuban  is  not  a 
native  of  Cuba,  having  been  born  in  Santo  Domingo. 
It  was  owing,  I  think,  to  my  acquaintance  with  that 
island,  that  the  old  hero  gave  me  a  most  cordial  reception, 
when  I  called  on  him  at  his  house.  Although  I  went  to 
him  a  stranger,  we  soon  became  well  acquainted,  and 
before  I  left  he  voluntarily  offered,  and  wrote  for  me,  a 
letter  of  introduction  to  the  governor  of  Puerto  Principe, 
which  was  the  means  of  another  most  agreeable  conver- 
sation on  Cuban  topics  with  one  thoroughly  acquainted 
with  the  island  and  the  events  of  the  war. 

"  Don  Tomas,"  as  perhaps  everybody  knows,  is  Presi- 
dent Tomas  Estrada  Palma,  inaugurated  in  May,  1902, 
who  was  born  in  the  little  town  of  Bayamo,  Santiago 
province,  in  1835.  Although  his  birthplace  is  an  isolated 
spot,  his  father,  who  was  a  wealthy  planter,  educated 
him  for  the  bar  and  provided  for  him  well.  But  when 
he  was  thirty-three  years  old  he  joined  the  insurgents 
at  the  beginning  of  the  Ten  Years'  war.     He  rose  to 


1C2       OUR  WEST   INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

the  rank  of  general  and  afterward  filled  the  presidential 
chair  of  the  insurrectionist  provisional  government. 

Then  his  family  estates  were  confiscated,  his  mother 
was  killed  by  Spanish  troops,  and  in  1877  he  was  himself 
captured  and  taken  to  Spain.  There  he  was  kept  for 
nearly  two  years  in  prison,  refusing  persistently  to  take 
the  oath  of  allegiance  to  Spain  to  save  his  estates,  and 
when  he  was  released  he  vowed  he  would  never  return 
to  Cuba  until  she  had  achieved  her  independence.  In 
pursuance  of  this  vow  he  went  to  Honduras,  where  he 
fell  in  love  with  and  married  the  daughter  of  the  presi- 
dent of  that  republic  and  was  made  postmaster  general. 

After  residing  in  Honduras  a  while  he  went  to  the 
United  States,  settling  at  Central  Valley,  N.  Y.,  where 
he  opened  a  school  for  boys  and  thus  gained  a  livelihood. 
His  life  in  the  United  States  was  an  open  book  to  all, 
and  especially  well  known,  of  course,  is  his  career  as 
the  head  of  the  Cuban  junta,  with  headquarters  in  the 
city  of  New  York. 

Seeing  the  innumerable  company  of  Cubans  loafing 
about  their  "  shacks  "  of  straw  and  palm  leaves  every- 
where so  numerous  in  the  country  districts,  and  noting 
their  apparently  insatiable  desire  to  do  nothing  all  day, 
and  do  it  thoroughly,  foreign  visitors  have  concluded 
that  the  Cuban  is  incurably  lazy.  It  is  an  obvious 
conclusion,  in  fact,  and  I  was  surprised  to  be  told  by  the 
superintendent  of  a  large  colonization  scheme  that  Cuban 
labor  as  he  found  it  was  not  only  regular,  but  reliable. 
He  had  more  than  a  hundred  men  at  work,  clearing 
land  and  planting  orange  trees,  engaged  all  day  and 
every  day,  from  daylight  till  dark  (with  two  hours' 
suspension  of  labor  in  the  heat  of  the  day),  and  had  no 
cause  for  complaint. 


THE  CUBAN  AS  HE  WAS  AND  IS       103 

The  men  are  faithful,  wilHng,  and  in  their  way  indus- 
trious, their  faults  being  those  of  an  ignorant,  simple- 
minded  people,  given  somewhat  to  superstition  and 
holding  in  reverence  local  and  racial  traditions.  They 
still  prefer  the  machete  to  the  bush-scythe  and  grass-hook, 
for  it  is  a  universal  implement  as  well  as  weapon. 

In  this  respect  the  Cuban  is  unchanged ;  it  is  doubtful 
if  he  ever  will  change.  He  will  spread  out  his  hands  and 
shrug  his  shoulders  (rolling  and  lighting  another  cigar- 
ette the  while)  when  shown  the  superior  tools  of  the  for- 
eigners ;  he  may  make  sporadic  attempts  to  adopt  them, 
but  almost  invariably  will  fall  back  upon  his  primitive 
implement  of  the  time  before  the  flood.  His  ancesters 
always  used  those  implements ;  they  are  good  enough  for 
anybody.  For  the  Cuban  has  a  great  reverence  for  his 
ancestors.  '' Es  coshimhre" — it  is  the  way  of  our 
people — is  his  fetish,  which  he  worships  absolutely.  Now 
it  is,  and  always  has  been,  costumhre  to  yoke  the  oxen  by 
the  horns,  and  to  plow  the  land  with  a  crooked  stick. 
Of  course,  it  is  very  painful  to  witness  the  apparent  suf- 
fering of  the  dumb  beasts,  rigidly  fastened  to  the  tongue 
of  a  cart,  every  jolt  of  which  twists  their  heads  about  and 
jars  their  nervous  system. 

Efforts  have  been  made  to  induce  the  Cubans  io  change 
this  costumhre,  but  without  avail.  When  the  great  Cuban 
railway  was  in  process  of  construction,  orders  were  issued 
for  the  adoption  of  yokes,  in  certain  sections,  which  orders 
were  at  first  sullenly  obeyed,  then  in  effect  ignored.  W^hen 
the  inspectors  came  around  the  oxen  were  found  toiling 
ineffectually  in  the  yokes,  or  else  turned  out  to  pasture 
with  galled  necks  and  shoulders.  It  was  not  long  before 
the  order  was  revoked,  and  now  it  would  be  difficult  to 
discover  a  team  of  oxen  yoked  up  in  the  fashion  so  thor- 


104       OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

oiighly  despised  by  the  natives.  It  seems  still  a  mooted 
question,  indeed,  whether  the  oxen  can  do  more  work 
yoked  in  the  American  or  the  Cuban  style. 

As  to  the  feelings  of  the  beasts  themselves,  the  Cubans 
never  felt  impelled  to  inquire,  until  the  inexplicable  Amer- 
ican raised  the  question.  It  seemed,  in  fact,  absurd,  if  not 
insane,  to  inquire  what  the  dumb  beast  felt.  Dumb  beasts 
were  created,  the  Cubans  hold,  to  work  for  man,  and  are 
entitled  to  no  consideration  whatever.  It  may  not  be  true, 
as  some  have  stated,  that  the  broncho  ceases  to  buck  and 
the  mule  to  kick,  in  Spanish- American  countries ;  but  at 
all  events  the  bucking  broncho  and  the  kicking  mule  are 
exceedingly  rare  in  these  regions.  The  Spanish-American 
treats  his  dumb  animals  cruelly,  wnth  hardly  any  excep- 
tion ;  but  the  result  is  that  they  are  thoroughly  convinced 
that  he  is  their  master,  and  rarely  rebel. 

While  cruelty  seems  to  be  ineradicable,  and  the  Spanish- 
Americans,  including  the  Cubans,  dote  on  cock  fights, 
bull  fights,  and  other  debasing  sports,  there  is  a  strain  of 
innate  courtesy  withal.  I  have  experienced  their  kindness 
and  courtesy  on  occasions,  and  always  found  them  un- 
failing. Above  all  else,  the  Cuban  is  good-hearted.  I  find 
him  the  same  in  this  respect  as  in  the  olden  days.  One 
might  think  that  the  vagaries  of  the  American  soldier  and 
sailor,  especially  when  out  on  a  spree,  and  their  well- 
known  disregard  of  the  social  amenities  on  such  an 
occasion,  would  have  tended  to  sour  the  Cuban  dis- 
position; but  it  seems  to  be  as  sweet  and  simple  as 
ever. 

I  once  rode  from  Guana  jay  to  Mariel  in  a  dilapidated 
coche  of  the  ancient  type,  and  in  company  with  three 
natives  of  the  island.  Two  were  men,  each  man  clad  in 
mud-stained  shirt  and  pantaloons,  the  former  worn  on  the 


THE  CUBAN  AS  HE  WAS  AND  IS        105 

outside,  and  their  unstockinged  feet  thrust  into  Moorish 
sandals. 

The  third  native  was  a  woman,  and  between  us  all  we 
filled  the  coche  nigh  to  overflowing.  Soon  after  we 
started  the  rain  came  down  in  torrents  and  we  were 
obliged  to  resort  to  every  sort  of  expedient  to  prevent  get- 
ting drenched.  Though  thinly  clad  in  cotton  garments, 
my  two  male  companions  ran  the  risk  of  a  wetting  in 
order  to  give  me  the  best  and  driest  seat,  and  perceiving 
that  the  gloom  of  the  occasion  seemed  to  have  a  depress- 
ing effect  upon  my  spirits,  exerted  themselves  to  divert 
me. 

All  were  smoking,  of  course,  and  when  the  woman 
handed  me,  first  a  cigarette,  and  then  a  light,  I  was  fain 
to  join  them  in  the  trivial  pastime.  As  the  clouds  of 
smoke  rolled  up,  the  sympathetic  Cuban  nature  showed 
itself  in  inquiries  as  to  my  family,  and  as  to  whether  I 
was  very  lonely  so  far  removed  from  home  and  friends. 
They  entered  into  my  description  of  life  in  the  States  with 
infinite  zest,  and  were  profuse  in  their  expressions  of 
admiration  for  America  and  the  Americans.  The  seiiorita 
told  me  vivaciously,  between  pufifs,  that  she  was  a 
soltera — a  spinster — and  though  she  owned  in  her  own 
right  a  valuable  tract  of  land,  she  had  no  home  of  her  own, 
but  resided  with  married  sisters. 

This  reference  to  the  fair  sex  reminds  me  that  while 
I  have  said  a  great  deal  about  the  Cubano,  or  male  Cuban, 
I  have  almost  entirely  neglected  the  Cuhana,  or  the  female 
of  the  family.  That  is  because  I  have  been  speaking  of 
the  Cubans  generically — as  a  whole,  and  not  with  respect 
to  diflferentiating  them  sexually.  As  the  whole,  of  course, 
embraces  a  part,  what  has  been  said  respecting  the  Cubano 
refers  as  well,  allowing  for  sex,  to  the  Cubana, 


io6       OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

That  there  is  a  fair  sex  in  Cuba  goes  without  the  say- 
ing; but  whether  she  appear  attractive,  collectively  and 
individually,  depends  upon  the  taste  and  temperament  of 
the  observer.  When,  as  a  younger  man,  I  visited  Havana, 
Santiago,  etc.,  I  was  much  impressed,  I  can  recall,  by  the 
flashing  black  eyes,  the  graceful  carriage,  and  the 
coquettish  manners  of  the  Cuban  sefioritas.  But  they  are 
merely  the  Spanish  damsels  transplanted ;  and  it  may  be 
said  of  them  as  of  the  society  and  home  life  in  the  city, 
that  having  seen  them  in  Spain  you  have  nothing  more  to 
add;  except  that  the  same  remarks  apply  to  the  seiioras, 
who  are  the  senoritas  after  they  are  married. 

Society,  schools,  and  churches  illustrate  the  condition  of 
the  people  and  identify  them  with  the  dominant  race  or 
nationality.  The  society  is  Spanish;  the  schools  are  nu- 
merous and  modeled  after  those  of  the  United  States — 
thanks  to  our  self-sacrificing  educators — and  the  religion 
of  the  masses  is  Roman  Catholic,  some  of  the  churches, 
notably  in  Havana,  Santiago,  and  Puerto  Principe,  com- 
paring favorably,  from  an  architectural  standpomt,  with 
their  prototypes  in  Europe;  though  not  so  large  nor  so 
old  as  the  finest  in  Spain. 

One  of  the  things  that  impresses  the  visitor  to  Cuba,  if 
he  remain  long  and  travel  extensively,  is  the  feeling  of 
absolute  security  that  prevails  throughout  the  island. 
Those  who  have  traveled  in  some  of  the  *'  doubtful  " 
countries  will  know  what  is  meant  when  I  say  that  there 
is  something  assuring  in  the  very  atmosphere.  In  Mexico, 
for  example,  say  twenty  years  ago  or  so,  the  air  was 
vibrant  with  a  sense  of  insecurity,  and  a  large  revolver — 
the  bigger  the  better — was  very  comforting,  nestled 
snugly  against  one's  hip  or  thrust  into  a  belt. 

In  certain  districts  of  that  country  it  was  chiefly  the 


THE  CUBAN  AS  HE  WAS  AND  IS        107 

revolver,  visibly  and  largely  in  evidence,  that  kept  trouble 
away  from  the  foreigner,  before  resolute  "  Don  Porfirio  " 
throttled  brigandage  and  brought  the  train  and  highway 
robbers  to  terms.  We  know  what  those  terms  were:  his 
own,  enforced  by  fearless  and  almost  omnipresent  "  ru- 
rales,"  who  stood  the  highwaymen  up  against  a  wall  or  a 
bank,  and  put  bullets  into  them  until  there  was  no  occa- 
sion for  any  more. 

By  methods  not  so  drastic,  perhaps,  nor  on  so  extensive 
a  scale  as  were  pursued  in  Mexico  by  President  Diaz,  the 
Cuban  authorities  have  finally  rid  their  land  of  banditti. 
The  last  real  brigands  avowedly  of  the  genuine  stamp, 
were  garroted  in  Santiago,  while  I  was  there,  and  since 
then  the  **  rurales  "  have  held  what  they  themselves  con- 
fess are  veritable  sinecures. 


yi 

COLONISTS  AND  CAPITAL  IN  CUBA 

The  American  colonist  becoming  ubiquitous  —  Belongs  to  a 
superior  class  —  What  Cuba  has  to  offer  him  —  What  the 
colonizers  offer  —  Vast  tracts  of  fertile  soil,  perfect  climate ; 
beyond  the  reach  of  Jack  Frost  —  Interior  of  the  island 
opened  to  settlement  by  the  Cuba  Railway  —  Everything  on 
earth  may  be  raised  here  —  A  market  for  everything  in  the 
United  States  —  How  a  home  may  be  established  —  The  best 
section  to  locate  in  —  Capital's  favorites  :  sugar  and  tobacco ; 
the  humble  colonist's  tropical  fruits  and  "  garden  truck "  — 
Isle  of  Pines,  La  Gloria,  Holguin,  and  Ceballos  —  The  ele- 
mental requirements  for  getting  a  living  —  Rules  for  good 
health  —  Endemic  diseases  and  insect  pests  —  The  maja  or 
great  Cuban  boa  constrictor  —  A  description  of  the  Isle  of 
Pines  —  A  natural  health  resort  —  Its  girdle  of  treasure- 
galleons —  Haunts  of  the  old-time  buccaneers,  where  a  great 
treasure  is  buried  in  the  sea. 

THE  American  colonist  in  Cuba,  if  not  exactly 
ubiquitous,  is  very  much  in  evidence.  Every 
one  of  the  six  provinces  has  its  colony,  and 
some  of  the  provinces  have  several  settlements,  com- 
posed largely  of  restless  individuals  from  the  States 
who  have  gone  to  Cuba  hoping  to  better  their  condition. 
Whatever  may  be  their  fortune,  they  cannot  be  considered 
other  than  valuable  acquisitions,  since  most  of  them  have 
money,  many  have  brawn  and  energy,  and  some  of  them 
have  all  three  combined. 

Taken  all  in  all,  the  class  of  Americans  that  has  gone  to 
Cuba,  hoping  to  find  there  the  promised  land  of  its  desires, 

io8 


COLONISTS  AND  CAPITAL  IN  CUBA    109 

is  a  superior  one,  and  would  find  a  welcome  anywhere. 
This  is  taking  into  account  the  people  who  have  gone 
there  to  settle,  to  build  homes,  and  if  possible  acquire  for- 
tunes, and  leaving  out  of  the  reckoning  those  who  are 
exploiting  Cuba  for  merely  speculative  purposes.  Not 
that  these  last  may  not,  also,  be  superior  persons ;  but 
they  have  not  the  vital  interest  in  the  outcome  which  the 
others  possess. 

Viewed  at  long  range,  say  from  New  York,  Boston,  or 
Chicago,  the  possibilities,  the  vast  opportunities,  of  the 
Pearl  of  the  Antilles,  loom  larger  and  grander  than  close 
at  hand,  perhaps.  It  is  the  perspective,  of  course,  that  is 
to  blame  for  the  glowing  accounts  of  Cuba  which  one 
reads  in  real-estate,  colonizing,  and  mining  prospectuses ; 
the  enchantment  distance  lends,  which  paints  the  picture 
in  such  brilliant  hues.  Distance  requires  a  telescope,  and 
no  telescope  is  good  unless  it  magnifies ! 

But,  taking  a  strictly  impersonal  and  unbiased  view  of 
Cuba  and  its  colonists,  making  every  allowance  for  the 
enthusiasm  of  capitalists  who  have  discovered  a  new  coun- 
try to  exploit,  while  at  the  same  time  sympathizing  with 
the  settlers  who  may  not  find  it  all  their  fancy  painted  it — 
or  rather,  the  ''  other  fellow's  "  fancy — let  us  inquire  into 
the  status  of  the  people  who  have  gone  down  to  possess 
the  land. 

First,  however,  as  to  the  island  itself:  Is  it  really  worth 
the  while  ?  As  to  that,  it  is  only  necessary  to  state  that  we 
have,  in  Cuba,  an  island  large  enough,  almost,  to  be  digni- 
fied with  the  name  of  country,  more  than  800  miles  in 
length,  45,000  square  miles  in  area,  with  little  more  than 
ten  per  cent,  of  its  soil  under  cultivation,  and  with  more 
than  a  million  acres  of  forest  lands.  Lying,  as  it  does, 
below  the  frost-line,  with  absolute  exemption  from  the 


no       OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

dangers  attendant  upon  the  cultivation  of  tropical  fruits, 
as  in  Florida  and  California,  it  has  attracted  the  attention 
of  all  those  engaged  in  that  occupation. 

It  has  a  vast  body  of  fertile  soil,  accumulated  by  the 
deposition  of  humus  through  uncounted  centuries,  which 
is  almost  if  not  quite  inexhaustible.  Above  all,  it 
has  a  climate  the  like  of  which  cannot  be  found  north  of 
the  island  itself.  Its  climatic  advantages  alone  would 
outweigh  whatever  disadvantages  it  possesses ;  but  these 
latter  are  almost  nil,  or  at  the  most  factitious — the  result 
of  artificial  conditions.  Until  within  a  few  years  prohib- 
ited to  the  foreigner,  the  interior  of  the  island,  with  its 
beautiful  valleys,  plains,  and  forest- covered  hillslopes,  has 
been  unexploited,  and  is  yet  to  a  great  extent,  in  certain 
sections,  unsurveyed. 

It  has  been  estimated  that  by  the  construction  of  the 
great  Cuba  Railway,  alone,  a  territory  including  70  per 
cent,  of  the  island's  area,  with  less  than  40  per  cent,  of  its 
population,  was  thrown  open,  or  made  available  more  or 
less  remotely,  to  settlement.  With  scores  of  deep-water 
harbors,  and  with  a  railway  system  connecting  the  eastern 
and  western  provinces,  its  offshoots  to  both  coasts  con- 
stantly increasing  in  number,  access  is  afforded  to  every 
important  point  in  the  island. 

As  to  Cuba's  strategic  position,  commanding  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico,  the  Caribbean,  and  almost  in  touch  with  all 
other  islands  of  the  Greater  Antilles,  we  have  nothing  to 
do;  but  that  position  counts  in  an  enumeration  of  its 
advantages.  These  advantages,  then,  are  strategic,  cli- 
matic, and  cultural.  As  the  largest  of  the  West-Indian 
islands,  Cuba  holds  a  dominating  position,  and  should  a 
West-Indian  Confederation  ever  be  formed  she  would  be, 
as  she  has  often  been  styled,  "  Qu^en  of  the  Antilles." 


COLONISTS  AND  CAPITAL  IN  CUBA    iii 

It  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  every  agricultural 
product  on  earth  can  be  raised  in  some  portion  or  other  of 
the  island,  from  strawberries  and  potatoes  in  the  hill  and 
mountain  regions,  to  cocoanuts,  coffee,  bananas,  and  pine- 
apples, in  the  tropical  littoral.  Finally,  all  these  products 
are  in  such  demand  that  they  find  a  ready  sale  in  the 
United  States  and  such  parts  of  Europe  as  can  be  reached 
without  too  long  a  sea-voyage.  Cuba  is  within  three  days 
of  New  York,  and  as  between  California  and  the  Atlantic 
seaboard  the  distance  is  less,  while  the  water-borne 
freightage  is  about  one-fourth  what  it  is  by  rail  from  the 
Pacific  coast,  with  our  great  metropolis  as  the  objective. 
Tropical  products,at  present,and  particularly  citrus  fruits, 
are  discriminated  against  by  duties  imposed  in  favor  of 
Florida  and  California,  which  amount  to  about  the  added 
cost  of  freight  from  the  latter  State  across  the  continent. 

These  are  some  of  the  facts  that  have  combined  to  make 
the  island  of  Cuba  seem  alluring  to  the  pent-up  dwellers 
in  the  frozen  North  in  winter  time.  Perpetual  summer 
(which,  by  the  way,  is  a  thing  one  can  get  too  much  of  in 
a  very  little  while)  seems  more  attractive  than  six  long 
months  of  winter ;  and  the  prospect  of  raising  one's  own 
tropical  fruits,  out  of  doors  and  without  a  greenhouse, 
is  seductive,  to  say  the  least. 

So  the  colonist  went  to  Cuba,  led  thither,  perhaps,  by 
the  flowery  descriptions  of  the  colonizer  and  (in  the 
majority  of  cases,  it  is  likely)  kept  there  by  a  lack  of  the 
wherewithal  to  return,  whether  satisfied  with  the  country 
or  not.  I  am  speaking  of  the  average  colonizer,  of  course, 
the  one  with  small  capital,  who  depends  mainly  on  his 
muscles  for  support.  He  will  naturally  turn  to  small 
fruits,  and  perhaps  to  "  garden  truck,"  for  a  living,  the 
while  with  his  own  hands,  perhaps,  constructing  a  house 


112        OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

in  which  to  dwell.  He  has,  probably,  paid  for  a  few  acres, 
either  wholly  or  in  part,  and  has  been  guided  in  his  choice 
by  the  advice  of  someone  who  knew  as  little  about  the 
subject  as  he  himself.  At  all  events,  he  is  there,  a  stranger 
in  a  strange  land,  amid  surroundings  altogether  new  and 
novel,  with  climatic  and  elemental  forces  to  combat  of 
which  he  has  but  the  faintest  conception.  Planting 
begins  at  the  opening  of  the  rainy  season,  or  in  the 
spring  months.  If  the  colonist  settle  in  Havana  prov- 
ince, -or  in  Pinar  del  Rio,  he  will  be  appalled  by  the  gener- 
ally forlorn  appearance  of  the  natives,  clad  in  cotton 
garments  splashed  with  clay-streaks,  sanguineous  in  hue 
and  repulsive  in  appearance.  The  women,  even,  slatternly 
dressed,  and  most  of  them  carrying  babes  in  their  arms, 
or  leading  children  by  the  hand,  are  clay-bedaubed,  while 
the  native  bohios,  the  rude  huts  of  palm  slabs  and  thatch, 
are  painted  with  Nature's  pigment  two  or  three  feet  from 
the  ground,  the  mud-stains  indicating  the  high -water 
marks  of  the  rainy  season.  Country  travel  is  none  too 
good  in  the  season  of  sunshine,  but  as  soon  as  the  rains 
commence  it  is  simply  awful,  for  the  roads  are  covered 
with  a  tenacious  clay  almost  as  adherent  as  that  famous 
plaster,  which  **  the  more  you  tried  to  pull  it  off,  the  more 
it  stuck  the  faster." 

Compelled  to  pull  his  weary  feet  out  of  a  succession  cf 
clay-pits,  as  he  wallows  through  his  garden  setting  out 
his  plants  or  putting  in  seed,  his  shoes  increasing  in  size 
and  weight  until  they  are  so  large  and  heavy  he  can  hardly 
lift  them,  the  Colonist  will  probably  be  inclined  to  murmur. 
And  especially  will  his  thoughts  take  a  pessimistic  turn 
when  the  sun  comes  out  and  bakes  the  clay  to  the  hardness 
of  a  pottery  shard,  and  pinches  the  life  out  of  whatever 
tender  seedling  it  gets  within  its  grip ! 


COLONISTS  AND  CAPITAL  IN  CUBA    113 

There  are  good  soils  in  the  Havana  province,  notably 
in  and  about  Giiines  and  the  southern  branches  of  the 
United  Railways,  and  this  section  is  a  good  one  for  garden 
stuff  and  the  smaller  fruits  that  are  most  perishable.  But 
it  will  not  do  to  depend  upon  the  Havana  market,  as  John 
Chinaman  supplies  that  almost  exclusively,  and  he,  as 
everybody  knows,  can  beat  the  world  at  raising  "  truck," 
and  all  the  world  over,  at  that.  Though  the  soils  of  this 
province  are  not  so  good  as  some  farther  east,  here  and  in 
Matanzas  province  being  generally  thin  and  stony,  the  con- 
tiguity to  the  chief  shipping  portof  the  island, with  frequent 
steamers  for  the  northern  cities,  is  a  great  consideration. 

Although  some  American  capital  has  been  invested  in 
the  Vuelta  Aba  jo  region  of  Pinar  del  Rio  province,  and 
adjacent  to  the  fine  natural  port  of  Bahia  Honda,  it  will 
probably  not  be  the  vegas  where  the  famous  tobacco  is 
cultivated  that  will  engage  the  attention  of  the  colonist 
with  small  means ;  nor  the  great  central  section  in  the 
Santa  Clara  province,  with  its  vaster  fields  of  sugar- 
cane. Tobacco,  as  the  statistics  show,  is  grown  on  the 
relatively  insignificant  amount  of  100,000  acres,  out  of 
Cuba's  grand  total  of  28,000,000;  but  it  has  been  the 
means  of  enriching  a  great  many.  Its  cultivation,  how- 
ever, requires  great  care  and  skill,  acquired  only  by  long 
practice  and  traditional  inheritance  by  natives  from 
natives,  so  it  will  not  do  at  all  for  the  colonist.  Neither 
should  he  think  of  sugar-cane,  for  the  great  ingenios  are 
being  gobbled  up  by  corporate  capital  aggregating  in  the 
millions.  The  immense  and  world-renowned  sugar 
estates  of  the  central  region  and  the  north  shores  of  San- 
tiago province,  mainly,  appear  to  occupy  a  large  propor- 
tion of  Cuba's  acreage,  but  in  reality  cover  only  about 
one-sixtieth  of  the  total  area. 


114       OUR  WEST  INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

Pinar  del  Rio,  the  western  province  of  Cuba,  will  not 
be  a  favorite  with  the  colonist  of  slender  resources, 
because  of  its  poor  soil  in  the  main,  which  is  intolerably 
dusty  in  the  dry  season,  and  stick-in-the-muddy  in  the  wet. 
The  same,  with  some  qualifications,  may  be  said  of  Havana 
province,  and  to  some  extent  of  Matanzas.  Some  push- 
ing Americans  thought  they  had  secured  a  title  to  the 
earthly  paradise  when  they  invested  a  million  or  so  in  the 
Isle  of  Pines.  About  ten  per  cent,  of  its  1200  square 
miles  is  classified  as  fertile,  and  this  is  found  in  detached 
vales  amongst  the  hills;  a  large  proportion  being  sterile 
upland  and  "  cienega/'  which  is  the  Spanish  for  swamp, 
being  used  for  that  word  in  the  prospectus  in  which  the 
"  immeasurable  fertility  "  of  the  island  is  set  forth.  Only 
about  one  per  cent,  of  the  Isle  of  Pines  was  formerly  cul- 
tivated, but  since  the  influx  of  the  Americans  with  their 
colony,  the  area  has  been  greatly  increased.  The  culti- 
vable land  remains  the  same,  however,  and  the  incoming 
agriculturists  are  wrestling  with  the  problem :  How 
to  get  a  living  from  the  soil,  which  time  alone  can 
solve. 

The  climate  of  the  Isle  of  Pines  is  nearly  perfect,  and 
it  has  the  finest  mineral  springs  in  the  world ;  but  it  lies 
sixty  miles  to  the  south  of  Havana,  can  be  reached  only 
by  steamers  drawing  less  than  eight  feet  of  water,  and 
though  it  can  raise  anything  that  "  grows  on  top  of 
earth,"  all  products  must  be  first  taken  to  Batabano,  there 
transshipped,  rail  to  Havana,  with  another  transshipment 
to  port  of  destination.  All  this,  with  the  monopoly  across 
the  Gulf  of  Batabano,  means  probably  the  difference  to 
the  grower  between  profit  and  loss. 

With  many  things  in  his  favor,  including  direct  trans- 
portation  to  northern   ports,   even   the   advantageously- 


COLONISTS  AND  CAPITAL  IN  CUBA    115 

situated  colonist  on  the  north  coast  of  Cuba  will  have  to 
face  a  similar  situation :  How  to  exist  while  the  products 
of  the  soil  are  coming  along.  An  obstinate  and  apparently 
invincible  colony  on  the  north  coast  is  that  of  La  Gloria, 
about  thirty  miles  from  the  port  of  Nuevitas,  which  has 
succeeded,  in  spite  of  many  discouragements,  in  raising 
almost  everything  under  the  sun.  But  La  Gloria  is  with- 
out rail  or  direct  water  communication  with  the  outside 
world,  and  the  sources  of  its  existence  are  as  mysterious 
as  the  impelling  reason  for  locating  it  where  it  is. 

A  colony  situated  within  reach  of  civilization  is  Las 
Minas,  on  the  railroad  between  Puerto  Principe  and 
Nuevitas,  and  this  appears  to  be  flourishing.  The  same 
may  be  said  of  the  Holguin  colony,  and  the  Ceballos ; 
though  the  latter,  about  ten  miles  from  Ciego  de  Avila  on 
the  Cuba  railway,  is  rather  a  cooperative  concern  than  a 
colony,  and  is  most  skillfully  managed. 

Without  committing  myself  to  an  opinion  as  to  the 
relative  merits  of  these  settlements,  or  of  the  several 
others  I  have  seen,  I  may  say  that  all  show  a  determina- 
tion to  hang  on  and  succeed  if  possible.  They  have  proved 
at  least  two  things :  that  Americans  can  live  and  thrive  in 
Cuba,  and  that  the  island  has  in  it  the  makings  of  many  ri 
fortune.  In  all  my  wanderings  about  I  did  not  see  any 
Americans  who  seemed  to  be  ill ;  though  I  did  see  many 
very  much  down  in  the  mouth.  This  is  not  saying,  or 
even  implying,  that  there  are  no  endemic  diseases  there, 
for  there  are,  but  mostly  of  malarial  or  intestinal 
character.* 

*  "  The  Cuban  campaign,"  said  General  Ludlow  in  his  testimony 
before  the  war-investigation  committee,  "  was  a  race  between  the 
physical  vigor  of  the  men  and  the  Cuban  malarial  fever  that  lay 
in  wait  for  them  !  " 


ii6       OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

My  advice  would  be:  Avoid  a  chill,  and  avoid  bad 
water.  Rise  early,  always  fortifying  yourself  with  a  cup 
of  coffee  before  going  out  in  the  morning,  work  as  much 
in  the  shade  as  possible,  lie  up  at  noontime  for  at  least  a 
couple  of  hours  (take  the  siesta,  which  all  the  natives 
indulge  in),  and  conform  as  much  as  you  can  to  the  life 
the  natives  lead.  These  rules  I  myself  have  followed 
during  several  years  in  the  West  Indies,  and  so  can  rec- 
ommend them.  I  have  had  fevers,  and  hard  ones ;  in  fact, 
contracted  a  mild  case  of  malaria  on  my  last  trip  down ; 
but  they  were  acquired  by  exposure  and  getting  wet. 

While  the  elemental  requirements  for  getting  a  living 
by  agriculture  all  exist  in  Cuba,  it  does  not  follow  that 
everybody  can  succeed  even  in  making  both  ends  meet. 
The  fate  of  the  pioneer — everybody  knows  what  that  is ! 

The  monotony  of  country  life  in  Cuba  has  hardly  a 
palliative  for  one  who  comes  from  what  he  so  fondly 
recurs  to  in  his  thoughts  as  "  God's  Country."  He  is 
likely  to  get  down-hearted  and  to  mope  about  the 
"  shack,"  instead  of  looking  about  for  the  really  interest- 
ing things  to  be  seen  outdoors  on  every  side.  If  he  sees  a 
centipede,  a  scorpion,  or  tarantula — and  they  are  all  there, 
and  liable  to  make  for  his  "  happy  home  "  when  the  rains 
come  down,  preferring  a  dry  thatch  to  a  wet  hole  in  the 
ground — he  may  possibly  draw  contrasts  between  life  in 
the  tropics  and  in  the  North.  En  passant,  I  may  remark 
that  while  people  are  sometimes  bitten  or  stung  by  all 
three,  very  few  fatalities  occur;  and  as  for  snakes,  there 
is  nothing  worse  than  the  big  boa,  locally  known  as  the 
maja,  which,  though  sometimes  attaining  a  length  of 
sixteen  feet,  is  entirely  harmless  to  human  beings.  But 
it  likes  fowl  and  dotes  on  chickens,  so  has  to  be  reckoned 
■\lvith,  if  the  settlement  be  near  a  forest. 


J    >  J    ^   3  3 


COLONISTS  AND  CAPITAL  IN  CUBA    117 

In  summing  up,  I  should  say  that,  all  things  considered, 
a  location  on  or  near  the  north  coa^t  of  the  southeastern 
section  of  Cuba,  which  is  two  degrees  to  the  south  of 
Havana  and  has  a  nearly  perfect  climate,  with  rich  soil, 
permitting  of  raising  such  purely  tropical  products  as 
coffee  and  cacao,  as  well  as  all  the  citrus  fruits  in  per- 
fection, pineapples,  etc.,  etc.,  would  be  preferable  to  any 
other.  Immense  tracts  of  virgin  soil  are  yet  available, 
and  the  scenery  comprises  some  of  the  fairest  prospects 
on  earth. 

If,  only,  the  colonist  can  hold  on  for  several  years,  he 
may  be  able  to  overcome  all  the  obstacles  at  present  exist- 
ing and  become  wealthy  through  indomitable  energy  and 
foresight;  but  then  again,  he  may  not.  Energy  and 
foresight  count  for  little  as  opposed  to  elemental  and 
climatic  forces.  There  is  small  danger  from  cyclones 
and  hurricanes,  in  Cuba,  especially  in  the  western  parts ; 
but  the  perpetual  strain  of  the  climate  is  something  which 
few  people  from  the  North  can  endure  without  eventually 
yielding  the  best  within  them. 

It  is  well  known  that  the  American  residents  on  the  Isle 
of  Pines  have  made  a  brave  fight  against  the  treaty  by 
which  the  island  was  to  be  handed  back  to  Cuba,  basing 
their  claims  for  continued  protection  from  the  United 
States  upon  their  preponderance  numerically,  financial 
investments  aggregating  several  millions  of  dollars,  and 
the  general  well-being  of  an  essentially  American 
community. 

One  thing  seems  to  have  been  overlooked  by  the 
exploiters  of  the  Isle  of  Pines,  and  that  is  the  vast  treas- 
ure by  which  the  island  is  girdled.  It  is  a  matter  of 
record,  that  treasure-ships  by  the  score  have  been  sunk 
off  the  Isla  Evangelista,  as  the  island  was  known  in  the 


ii8     OUR  WEST  Indian  Neighbors 

ancient  days  of  silver-laden  galleons,  which  sometimes 
doubled  the  western  end  of  Cuba  on  their  voyages  home- 
ward from  Mexico  and  Yucatan.  In  the  year  1560  a 
Spanish  ship  went  to  the  bottom  in  a  tempest  when  off 
the  east  end  of  Isle  of  Pines,  carrying  dow^n  twelve  tons 
of  silver  from  the  mines  of  Guanabacoa,  and  a  vast  quan- 
tity of  treasure  comprised  in  rare  jewels. 

The  most  romantic  of  those  tales  of  sunken  galleons 
pertains  to  a  treasure-ship  which  was  lost  in  the  year 
1679,  and  all  on  account  of  an  Indian  slave,  one  of  the 
very  last  left  alive  in  Cuba.  He  was  the  property  of  Dona 
Inez  Escobedo,  who  was  taking  him  as  a  present  to  her 
br<)ther,  a  governor  of  one  of  the  Canary  islands.  She 
also  had  a  vast  store  of  jewels,  and  there  was  with  her  a 
distinguished  company  of  retired  officers  of  the  Crown, 
most  of  whom  had  gold  and  silver  in  bars,  from  the  pro- 
ceeds of  which  they  intended  to  live  in  luxury  in  Spain. 

One  fine  morning,  when  the  galleon  was  a  few  miles  to 
the  southeast  of  the  Isle  of  Pines,  it  was  discovered  that 
she  had  sprung  a  leak,  and  when  the  master  of  the  vessel 
started  to  investigate  he  was  met  by  the  sound  of  blows, 
caused  by  the  Indian  slave,  who  with  a  hatchet  was  scut- 
tling the  ship.  He  warned  the  captain  not  to  advance, 
as  he  himself  was  determined  to  die,  and  meant  to  carry 
down  with  him  the  whole  ship's  company. 

'  In  order  to  draw  his  fire,  a  black  slave  was  thrown  into 
the  hold;  but  the  Indian  paid  no  attention  to  him,  and 
went  on  with  his  vengeful  work.  Then  into  the  hold 
sprang  an  old  Spanish  officer,  one  Sefior  Don  Jose  Nuiiez, 
a  caballero  of  renown,  who  with  drawn  sword  advanced 
in  the  darkness  against  the  desperate  Indian.  Seeing  no 
means  of  escape,  and  having  accomplished  his  purpose, 
the  Indian  crawled  beneath  a  beam  and  drowned  himself 


COLONISTS  AND  CAPITAL  IN  CUBA    119 

in  the  fast-deepening  water,  which  soon  gained  upon  the 
pumps  to  such  an  extent  that  the  galleon  sank  with  all  its 
treasures,  the  passengers  barely  saving  their  lives. 

Within  sight  of  the  Isle  of  Pines,  in  the  calm  of  a  sum- 
mer sea,  this  galleon  went  down  with  all  its  treasure,  and 
though  many  attempts  have  been  made  to  recover  the 
latter,  they  have  not  yet  succeeded.  To  keep  her  com- 
pany, one  of  the  infrequent  hurricanes  that  sometimes 
occur  oft"  the  southwest  coast  of  Cuba  sent  to  Davy  Jones' 
locker  a  galleon  which  had  been  captured  by  a  buccaneer. 
This  buccaneer  was  the  redoubtable  Bartholomew  Portu- 
guese, a  crafty  corsair,  whose  headquarters  were  at  the 
island  of  Tortuga,  off  the  north  coast  of  Haiti.  Prowl- 
ing about  the  Isle  of  Pines,  he  suddenly  came  upon  and 
captured  a  treasure-ship  with  half  a  million  dollars'  worth 
of  gold  and  silver  bars.  He  had  hardly  set  the  Spanish 
crew  adrift,  after  cutting  the  throats  of  several,  as  a 
warning,  when  a  hurricane  sprang  up  that  sent  his  ship 
to  the  bottom ;  and  there  she  lies,  presumably,  to-day, 
neither  ship  nor  treasure  having  been  seen  since  that  time. 


VII 


JAMAICA,  QUEEN  OF  THE  ANTILLES 

Distance  from  Santiago  to  Jamaica  —  Port  Antonio  and  Kings- 
ton—  Blue  Mountain  Peak  and  the  way  to  it  —  Valleys, 
streams,  and  ridges  —  The  land  of  springs  —  Three  zones  of 
vegetation  —  All  the  fruits  of  the  Tropics  —  No  description 
can  do  justice  to  Nature's  pictures  in  Jamaica  —  Discovered 
by  Columbus,  captured  by  Admiral  Penn  —  Port  Royal, 
ancient  pirate  city,  and  its  awful  end  —  Where  the  hotels  are 
to  be  found  —  Kingston's  shabby-genteel  architecture  and 
its  suburbs  —  Roads,  railways  and  highways,  800  miles 
of  them  —  A  city  that  wants  to  be  clean  —  An  island  that 
wants  to  be  American  —  Steamship  lines  running  to 
Jamaica  —  Its  situation  in  relation  to  Panama  —  Why 
Jamaica  prefers  Brother  Jonathan  to  John  —  Her  best  cus- 
tomer and  best  friend  —  Has  long  been  "on  the  fence"  —  A 
prophecy  made  in  1782  —  What  Mr.  Froude  says  anent 
Jamaica's  future  —  What  Mr.  MacNish  says  —  A  position 
painful  to  contemplate. 

BEYOND  Santiago  and  the  south  coast  of  Cuba  we 
find  a  glorious  assemblage  of  islands,  scattered 
over  the  fair  and  tranquil  Caribbean  Sea.  Two 
routes  are  open  to  us  thence:  one  to  Haiti,  Santo  Do- 
mingo, Puerto  Rico,  and  the  crescentic  Carribbees,  and 
the  other  to  Jamaica,  land  of  running  streams  and  lofty 
mountains. 

It  would  seem,  perhaps,  invidious  to  descant  upon  the 
scenery  of  any  one  island  more  than  another,  for  in  truth 
each  has  a  bit  of  earthly  paradise  to  show ;  but  Jamaica 
is  certainly  one  of  the  most  attractive.     It  is  only  172 

120 


JAMAICA,  QUEEN  OF  THE  ANTILLES      121 

miles  from  Santiago  to  Kingston,  90  from  the  nearest 
point  on  the  Cuban  coast  to  Montego  Bay,  and  about  the 
same  distance  to  that  thriving  port  on  the  north  coast,  San 
Antonio.  And  while  we  are  mentioning  distances,  it 
may  be  as  well  to  note  that  the  last-named  port  is  just 
1400  miles  from  New  York,  from  which  a  run  of  four 
hours  by  rail,  or  seventy  miles  by  sea,  brings  one  to 
Kingston,  the  emporium  and  capital  city  of  Jamaica. 
There  was  a  time,  not  long  since,  when  Kingston  absorbed 
all  the  travel  and  most  of  the  traffic  of  the  island ;  but 
things  have  changed  since  the  establishment  of  the 
United  Fruit  Company  in  Jamaica,  with  its  splendid 
steamers  direct  to  Port  Antonio,  and  its  fine  hotel  perched 
above  the  port  and  growing  city. 

Still,  the  entrance  to  Kingston's  magnificent  harbor  is 
well  worth  the  short  voyage  around  the  east  end  of  the 
island  to  view,  especially  as  we  pass  close  to  ancient  Port 
Royal,  and  abreast  the  palm-covered  Palisadoes,  the  far- 
stretching  sand-spits  which  fend  off  the  rough  waves 
from  the  southward.  Entrancing  mountain  views  we 
have  had,  ever  since  we  sighted  land,  for  grand  Blue- 
Mountain  Peak  rises  to  a  height  of  7300  feet,  the  domi- 
nant pinnacle  of  a  system  which  comprises  several  other 
elevations  rising  five  and  six  thousand  feet,  with  lateral 
ridges  running  to  the  coast  on  either  side,  north  and 
south.  Between  them  are  valleys  and  streams — more 
than  one  hundred  of  the  latter — most  of  which  are  hidden 
from  sight ;  but  enough  revealed  to  evoke  wonder,  admi- 
ration, and  astonishment  in  the  beholder. 

Like  Cuba,  this  island  still  retains  its  original  and 
aboriginal  name,  which  was  "  Xaymaca,"  the  land  of 
woods  and  waters,  island  of  springs ;  and,  given  a  tropical 
climate,  with  abundance  of  water,  thus  supplying  heat 


122        OUR  WEST   INDIAN    NEIGHBORS 

and  moisture,  the  great  requisites  for  exuberant  vegeta- 
tion, we  may  not  be  astonished  at  the  results.  In  fact, 
borrowing  a  simile  from  the  Spanish,  our  vision  embraces 
the  range  of  three  zones  of  vegetation  when  we  look  upon 
Jamaica  from  the  sea:  the  tierra  caliente,  or  hot  zone; 
the  templada,  or  temperate,  and  the  fria,  or  cold  region ; 
and  no  mere  being  of  human  mold  can  do  justice  in  a 
verbal  description  to  the  composite  picture  presented. 

Imagine,  if  you  can,  the  ranks  and  crowds  of  cocoa 
palms  along  the  shores,  the  bananas,  plantains,  bamboos, 
and  hosts  of  tropical  fruit-trees,  abounding  in  the  middle 
zone ;  and  try  to  picture  the  shady  nooks  with  their  gush- 
ing springs  and  babbling  brooks,  with  their  silver,  golden, 
and  tree-ferns,  trumpet  trees,  ceibas,  mahogany,  green- 
heart — all  precious  woods,  in  truth ;  the  clearings  with 
their  wealth  of  coffee,  cacao,  orange,  lime,  lemon,  bread- 
fruit, mango,  custard-apple,  guava,  cinchona,  nutmeg,  and 
pimento  (with  spices  and  '*  gales  from  Araby  ")  ;  the 
gold-green  seas  of  sugar-cane,  the  brown  squares  of 
native  provision-grounds  tip-tilted  against  the  hillsides; 
the  somber  sweeps  of  forest,  and  above  all,  the  towering 
peaks  in  space  supernal,  their  brows  adorned  with  cloud- 
wreaths  woven  from  the  rising  mists. 

No,  no,  it  is  impossible  to  do  justice  to  Jamaica's  land- 
scape charms  on  paper ;  neither  can  canvas  portray  them 
adequately,  for,  though  the  forms  ma^^  be  imitated,  not 
so  the  multi-colored  vegetation,  the  evanescent  hues  of 
leaf  and  fruit,  seen  through  the  mist  and  sunshine  min- 
gled, as  in  a  cloth  of  gold. 

Let  us,  then,  lay  hold  of  something  concrete  and  tan- 
gible :  for  example,  the  old  pirate  city  that  lies  abeam  on 
the  tip  end  of  the  Palisadoes,  to  wit,  Port  Royal,  for  here 
we  have  near  a  century  of  Jamaica's  history  in  epitom^. 


JAMAICA,  QUEEN  OF  THE  ANTILLES    123 

Its  history,  that  is,  after  the  island  was  taken  by  Penn 
and  Venables,  in  1655.  Admiral  Penn  (our  immortal 
William's  pater)  proceeded  against  the  Spaniards  by 
sturdy  Cromwell's  orders,  because  they  had  murdered 
English  sailors  and  driven  English  ships  out  of  the 
Caribbean  Sea. 

That  was  the  beginning  of  British  rule  in  Jamaica,  two 
hundred  and  fifty  years  ago.  The  Spaniards  had  been 
in  possession  since  1509,  Christopher  Columbus  having 
discovered  the  island  in  1494.  Their  first  settlement  was 
on  the  north  coast,  in  the  parish  of  Saint  Ann's,  but  about 
1630  they  founded  another  which  they  called  San  Jago  de 
la  Vega,  over  on  the  mainland  opposite  Port  Royal,  which 
is  now  known  as  Spanish  Town,  and  is  worth  the  trouble 
of  a  visit,  being  within  a  few  miles  of  Kingston. 

The  putative  founder  of  Sevilla,  the  first  town,  was 
Don  Diego  Columbus,  son  of  Christopher,  and  to  his 
son,  Don  Luis,  was  given  the  marquisate  of  La  Vega. 
While  on  this  subject,  I  may  mention  that  some  of  the 
Spanish  names  survive  in  a  corrupted  form,  as  Boca  del 
Agua,  a  beautiful  stream  now  known  as  the  "  Bog 
Walk";  Agua  Alta,  the  "Wag  Water";  Rio  Cobre ; 
Montego,  from  Manteca,  because  the  Spaniards  tried  out 
lard  in  the  bay;   Rio  Novo,  etc. 

But  Port  Royal  brings  to  mind  the  times  of  old,  when 
English  and  F/ench  and  Dutch  went  buccaneering,  at 
first  in  quest  of  the  common  enemy,  the  Spaniards,  and 
after  that  in  search  of  plunder,  no  matter  what  the  nation- 
ality of  the  people  to  whom  it  belonged.  Hither  came 
the  mighty  Morgan,  afterwards  Sir  Henry,  by  the  grace 
of  King  Charles  11. ;  Lollonois,  Mansveldt,  and  many 
another  buccaneer  and  pirate  of  high  as  well  as  low 
degree,  and  the  streets  of  gay  Port  Royal   rang  with 


124       OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

revelry  such  as  suited  the  whims  of  men  engaged  in  deeds 
of  blood.  Hand-in-hand  with  the  pirates,  the  slavers, 
also,  united  to  give  the  town  an  evil  reputation,  for  one 
historian  of  Jamaica,  Bryan  Edwards,  says  that  more 
than  600,000  were  landed  here  between  the  years  1680 
and  1786.  But  the  end  came,  in  the  year  1692,  when 
Port  Royal  slid  off  into  the  sea,  carrying  with  it  such  as 
remained  of  "  the  most  ungodly  people  on  the  face  of  the 
earth  " ;  and,  'tis  said,  when  the  water  is  calm,  one  may 
see  to-day  the  submerged  ruins  of  dwellings,  warehouses, 
forts,  and  churches. 

In  the  museum  of  the  Jamaica  Institute  at  Kingston 
may  be  seen  a  bell  of  the  church  which  went  under  with 
the  rest ;  and  over  at  Green  Bay,  on  the  opposite  shore, 
stands  (or  recently  stood)  a  tombstone  to  the  memory  of 
one  who  was  thrown  into  the  sea,  on  that  dreadful  day  in 
June,  1692,  and  by  a  second  earthquake  shock  thrown  out 
again,  living  more  than  forty  years  thereafter. 

Port  Royal  to-day  shows  few  if  any  traces  of  that  ter- 
rible catastrophe;  at  least,  I  saw  none  on  my  first  visit 
there,  when,  as  the  guest  of  Commodore  Lloyd  of 
H.  M.  S.  "  Urgent,"  I  lunched  at  headquarters  ashore.* 
Perhaps  it  was  the  lunch,  perhaps  the  pirates  are  all  dead ; 
but  I  recall  only  the  former,  which  was  so  excellent  I 
felt  that  looking  for  the  latter  would  be  a  waste  of  time. 
The  Commodore  had  an  attractive  collection  of  tropical 

♦The  American  Consul,  Mr.  Estes,  and  Mr.  Frederick  A. 
Ober,  the  Commissioner  of  the  World's  Fair  to  the  West  Indies, 
breakfasted  on  Thursday  with  Admiral  Gherardi  on  board  the 
war-ship  "  Philadelphia."  Shortly  after  midday  Mr.  Estes  and 
Mr.  Ober  proceeded  by  steam-launch  to  Port  Royal  and  had 
luncheon  with  Commodore  Lloyd. —  The  Jamaica  Post,  March  28, 
1891. 


JAMAICA,  QUEEN  OF  THE  ANTILLES    125 

plants,  which,  along  with  everything  and  everybody  else 
at  Port  Royal,  were  watered  from  a  spring  seven  miles 
distant  across  the  bay,  there  being  no  local  aqueous  sup- 
ply at  the  Port. 

What  the  old  buccaneers  did  for  water,  history  does  not 
inform  us,  except  indirectly.  That  is,  we  are  told  that 
rum  and  wine  were  freer  than  water  there,  a  cask  of  one 
or  the  other  being  ''  on  tap  "  all  the  time  in  the  streets ; 
and  woe  betide  the  man  who  refused  to  drink  at  the 
behest  of  the  bewhiskered  buccaneers,  who  "  set  'em  up  " 
whenever  they  were  flush.  They  were  always  in  good 
spirits  so  long  as  the  liquor  lasted ;  but  it  gave  out  at 
last,  after  the  perfidious  Morgan  was  knighted,  for  he 
turned  upon  his  erstwhile  comrades  and  sent  many  of 
them  to  the  gallows-tree,  to  which  he  himself  should  have 
preceded  them.  On  Gallows  Point,  not  far  away,  you 
may  see  the  place  where  they  were  gibbeted  and  the  vul- 
tures picked  their  bones. 

The  defection  of  Sir  Henry  Morgan,  buccaneer,  cut- 
throat, piratical  gentleman  of  the  sea,  finds  its  parallel  in 
an  event  of  modern  times,  to  wit,  the  case  of  the  East- 
Indian  mongoose.  This  animal  was  introduced  into 
Jamaica  for  the  purpose  of  destroying  the  Norway  rat 
(likewise  a  foreigner)  and  accomplished  the  intended 
purpose  effectually. 

But  alas!  it  destroyed  everything  else  that  was  not 
bigger  than  itself,  birds  as  well  as  quadrupeds,  and  the 
last  state  of  Jamaica  was  infinitely  worse  than  the  first. 
The  birds  being  nearly  exterminated,  the  insect  pests  mul- 
tiplied exceedingly,  particularly  the  ticks,  inasmuch  as  it 
is  as  much  as  one's  life  is  worth  to  take  a  walk  in  the 
fields  or  though  a  bit  of  woods.  The  mongoose  upset 
the  balance  of  Nature — and  now,  it  is  reported,  Nature 


126       OUR   WEST   INDIAN    NEIGHBORS 

is  upsetting  the  mongoose,  for  the  ticks  are  attacking  and 
kilHng  the  very  animal  that  caused  their  multipHcation ! 

Meanwhile,  we  are  supposed  to  be  sailing  across  the 
land-locked  harbor  to  Kingston,  capital  and  chief  city  of 
Jamaica,  which,  with  due  regard  to  actual  conditions,  is 
vastly  more  attractive  at  a  distance  than  close  aboard. 
Seen  across  the  bay,  with  its  fringe  of  cocoa  palms,  which 
also  besprinkle  the  city  considerably,  and  with  its  effective 
background  of  mountains  draped  in  tropical  vegetation, 
Kingston  presents  an  alluring  spectacle ;  but  when 
arrived  at  one  of  its  wharves  one  no  longer  wonders  why 
the  early  pirates  took  to  Port  Royal  and  its  early  inhabi- 
tants took  to  drink. 

And  yet,  Kingston  has  improved  wonderfully  within 
my  recollection.  It  is  no  longer  the  ramshackle  town  of 
Tom  Cringle's  time,  for  there  were  no  trams  then, 
and  the  hero  of  the  immortal  "  Log  "  either  had  to  foot  it 
or  ride  on  horseback,  whenever  out  on  mischief  bent. 

But,  when  we  compare  the  Kingston  of  to-day  with  the 
city  of  day  before  yesterday,  it  is  almost  entitled  to  be 
classed  with  Havana  and  Santiago.  For  it  tries  to  be 
clean,  and  has  always  been  respectable.  It  has  not  had 
an  influx  of  benevolent  Yankees,  like  those  who  took  hold 
of  the  Cuban  cities,  washed  their  faces,  scrubbed  their 
streets,  and  after  showing  them  what  they  ought  to  do 
and  how  to  do  it,  leaving  behind  a  few  million  dollars 
with  which  to  do  it.  Whatever  has  been  done  for  Kings- 
ton has  proceeded  from  her  innate  love  of  cleanliness, 
not  from  a  factitious  virtue  which  had  to  be  dinged  into 
her  head  by  a  sort  of  surgical  operation !  The  improve- 
ments have  cost  money,  to  be  sure;  but  the  authorities 
nobly  borrowed  it  on  the  island's  credit,  and  that  will 
explain  how  it  is  they  have  a  debt  of  about  £3,487,45^, 


JAMAICA,  QUEEN  OF  THE  ANTILLES    127 

more  or  less — but  not  much  less.  Seventeen  million 
dollars  in  debt,  with  a  population  under  800,000,  and  less 
than  15,000  of  them  avowedly  white,  Jamaica  must  have 
harbored  some  "  Napoleons  of  finance  "  within  her  bor- 
ders, at  some  time  or  other.  Perhaps  they  are  there  now, 
perhaps  they  are  hiding  in  the  woods ;  but  they  don't 
seem  to  be  able  to  draw  her  out  of  the  mire  into  which  she 
has  fallen  and  appears  to  be  hopelessly  held. 

Not  all  the  borrowed  money  went  into  civic  improve- 
ments, for,  in  Sir  Henry  Blake's  time,  ten  to  fifteen  years 
ago,  much  of  it  went  for  roads — for  which  God  bless  the 
builders !  Then  there  is  the  railroad  from  Kingston 
northwest  to  Montego  Bay,  113  miles,  and  northeast 
to  Port  Antonio,  75  miles,  which  runs  part  of  the  way 
through  a  tropical  Eden,  and  some  of  the  way  through 
swamps  and  brush.  It  cost  "  a  mint  of  money,"  much 
of  which  went  into  pockets,  the  natives  say,  not  emptied 
in  Jamaica. 

However,  it  connects  Kingston,  and  its  45,000  popula- 
tion, with  Montego  Bay  (5000)  at  the  western  terminus, 
passing  through  Spanish  Town  (5000),  and  several  other 
towns  along  the  way.  It  is  a  boon  to  the  tourist,  for 
thereby  he  may  see  the  country  without  great  efifort,  and 
revel  in  scenery  otherwise  not  accessible  to  the  traveler. 

Neither  should  the  hotels  be  omitted  in  this  account  of 
what  the  (other)  peoples'  money  went  for,  since  they 
exist  to-day  and  minister  to  the  wants  of  the  tourist  in 
places  which,  but  for  the  borrowed  money,  might  never 
have  been  opened  to  the  public.  Not  alone  the  Constant 
Spring  near  Kingston,  which  is  a  palatial  and  well-set 
structure  in  a  cool  and  airy  situation,  but  the  charming 
little  inn  at  Rio  Cobre,  Spanish  Town ;  the  one  at  Mon- 
eague,  and  several  others  in  the  country  districts,  are  in 


128      OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

evidence.  In  fact,  Jamaica  is  quite  a  contrast  to  some 
other  islands  that  might  be  mentioned,  in  its  possession  of 
good  roads,  fine  hotels,  and  country  inns,  and  a  hospitality 
that  is  bountiful  and  overflowing. 

The  largest  of  the  British  West  Indies,  it  is,  next  to 
Barbados,  the  most  thoroughly  English  of  them  all.  Its 
4193  square  miles  of  territory  (the  island  is  144  miles  in 
length  and  50  in  width)  is  divided  into  three  counties,  all 
with  names  derived  from  Old  England,  as  Surrey,  Mid- 
dlesex, Cornwall ;  as  are  those  of  its  fourteen  parishes, 
such  as  Hanover,  Portland,  Manchester,  Clarendon,  etc. 
The  people  are  intensely  loyal  to  King  Edward  and  the 
British  Government ;  yet  with  a  reservation  that  bespeaks 
them  possessed  of  at  least  a  modicum  of  common-sense, 
when  they  reflect  upon  the  contiguity  of  the  United  States 
and  a  market,  as  opposed  to  the  inefficiency  of  the  "  right 
little,  tight  little  island,"  5000  miles  away. 

Until  recently  there  was  only  a  roundabout  communi- 
cation with  England  by  way  of  the  "  Royal  Mail  "  line  of 
steamers;  but  now  that  American  enterprise  has  stimu- 
lated competition,  there  is  a  direct  mail  line,  the  Elder- 
Dempster,  which  "  does  "  the  distance  between  Jamaica 
and  the  Mother  Island  in  about  twelve  days.  This  is  as 
opposed  to  four  or  five  days  between  Jamaica  and  Boston, 
Baltimore,  or  Philadelphia,  by  steamers  of  the  United 
Fruit  Company,  or  the  Hamburg-American  to  New  York, 
which  has  taken  the  place  of  the  old-time  "  Atlas  "  line. 

The  British  have,  apparently,  only  recently  become 
aware  that  they  are  losing  the  trade,  and  perhaps  the  loy- 
alty, of  a  large  and  fertile  island,  which  has  acquired 
increased  importance  from  the  building  of  the  Panama 
canal.  Lying  right  in  the  direct  route  of  steamers 
between  the  Isthmus  and  all  Atlantic  ports  of  the  United 


JAMAICA,  QUEEN  OF  THE  ANTILLES    129 

States,  and  less  than  550  miles  distant  from  Colon, 
Jamaica,  more  than  any  other  island,  will  feel  the  impetus 
this  vast  undertaking  will  give  to  all  enterprises  in  the 
Caribbean  Sea,  of  which  it  is  nearly  the  exact  geographi- 
cal center.  It  may  reach  out  and  grasp,  or  at  least  take 
tribute  from,  the  commerce  of  the  Central  and  South 
American  littoral — of  the  rich  Veragua  coast  and  Spanish 
Main.  There  is  doubtless  a  great  future  for  Jamaica, 
and  perhaps  Britons  are  beginning  to  perceive  this,  as 
evidenced  by  their  increased  efforts  to  retain  its  trade  and 
maintain  connection  with  its  ports. 

Love,  the  cynic  says,  is  a  mere  matter  of  propinquity, 
and  almost  any  man  may  love  almost  any  woman  (and 
vice  versa),  provided  they  be  thrown  together  often 
enough — though  not  too  often  to  dispel  the  illusion.  This, 
in  a  word,  is  probably  the  reason  why  Jamaica  prefers 
Brother  Jonathan  to  John  Bull :  because  he  is  nearer,  and 
being  also  richer,  is,  of  course,  the  more  available  as  well 
as  desirable,  parti. 

Political  considerations  have  held  her  against  geo- 
graphical conditions.  If  Cromwell  had  not  sent  out  that 
expedition  under  Penn  and  Venables,  about  the  middle  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  as  the  outcome  of  which  Jamaica 
passed  from  Spanish  into  English  hands,  we  might  now 
be  claiming  proprietorship  there,  as  well  as  in  Puerto 
Rico. 

Without  pausing  to  discuss  the  desirability  of  this 
prospective  acquisition  (though,  in  parenthesis,  it  may  be 
said  that  much  may  be  argued  in  its  favor),  let  us  inquire 
into  the  motive  for  Jamaica's  behavior.  In  the  first  place, 
contiguity,  a  distance  of  about  1400  miles,  as  against 
5000 ;  five  days'  voyaging  as  opposed  to  twelve,  and  a  first- 
class  passage  of  $40,  rather  than  $150.    Then,  again,  even 


I30       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

despite  the  distance  that  separates  them,  the  EngHsh 
have  not  taken  their  due  proportion  of  Jamaica's  prod- 
ucts. We  are  her  chief  customers,  taking  all  of  60 
per  cent,  of  her  sugar,  rum,  bananas,  etc.,  while  the 
United  Kingdom  takes  less  than  30  per  cent. 

Ungrateful  Jamaica,  however,  instead  of  reciprocating, 
allows  her  political  sentiments  to  outweigh  commercial 
obligations,  and  buys  more  than  half  her  manufactured 
goods  of  merchants  in  the  "  mother  country."  She  also 
supports  a  long  list  of  officials  at  salaries  ranging  from 
£6000,  allowed  the  governor,  to  a  beggarly  £600,  given 
to  the  registrar  general.  It  is  evident,  then,  why  British 
officialdom  is  loath  to  let  go ;  though  not  so  evident  why 
Jamaica  still  clings  to  the  paternal  hand.     . 

Two  weeks  after  Admiral  Dewey's  victory,  which  gave 
us  control  in  the  Philippines,  the  writer  put  forth  in  a 
Washington  paper  a  tentative  proposition  for  a  "  swap." 
That  was  probably  the  first  suggestion  of  an  exchange  of 
the  Philippines  for  the  British  West  Indies.  Since  that 
time,  however,  the  proposition  has  been  considered  in  all 
seriousness,  and  it  is  not  unlikely  that  what  was  intended 
as  a  suggestion  merely  may  crystallize  into  an  actuality. 

Not  to  wander  too  far  from  the  subject,  however,  and 
to  come  around  to  the  original  statement  that  Jamaica's 
love  for  us  is  no  new  fancy  of  recent  birth,  let  me  quote 
in  support  from  Bryan  Edwards'  "  History  of  the  British 
Colonies  in  the  West  Indies,"  published  in  the  last  decade 
of  the  eighteenth  century.  Referring  to  the  bill  pre- 
sented to  the  House  of  Commons  in  March,  1782,  by  the 
Right  Hon.  William  Pitt,  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer, 
"  for  the  purpose  of  reviving  the  beneficial  intercourse 
that  existed  before  the  late  American  war,  between  the 
United  States  and  the  British  sugar  islands,"  he  says : 


*»,- ,°-', ,',,: :°  '.''o\? 


i-4 
O 

d 
o 

3 


JAMAICA,  QUEEN  OF  THE  ANTILLES    131 

''  This  bill,  through  the  influence  of  popular  prejudice 
and  other  causes,  was,  unfortunately,  lost.  Had  it  passed 
into  a  law  it  would  probably  have  saved  from  the  horrors 
of  famine  fifteen  thousand  unoffending  negroes,  who 
miserably  perished,  in  Jamaica  alone,  from  the  sad  effects 
of  the  fatal  restrictive  system  which  prevailed. 

"  With  a  chain  of  coast  of  twenty  degrees  of  latitude, 
possessing  the  finest  harbors  for  the  purpose  in  the  world, 
all  lying  so  near  to  the  sugar  colonies  and  the  track  to 
Europe — with  a  country  abounding  in  everything  the 
islands  have  occasion  for,  and  which  they  can  obtain 
nowhere  else — all  these  circumstances  necessarily  and 
naturally  lead  to  a  commercial  intercourse  between  our 
islands  and  the  United  States !  It  is  true,  we  may  ruin 
our  sugar  colonies,  and  ourselves  also,  in  the  attempt  to 
prevent  it,  but  it  is  an  experiment  which  God  and  nature 
have  marked  out  as  impossible  to  succeed." 

He  continues:  "  I  write  with  the  freedom  of  history, 
for  it  is  the  cause  of  humanity  that  I  plead."  And  he 
might  have  added,  "  with  the  spirit  of  prophecy,"  for  this 
remarkable  forecast  was  written  more  than  a  hundred 
years  ago.  Bryan  Edwards  was  for  many  years  a  resi- 
dent in  Jamaica,  and  knew  the  island  well.  Since  his 
time  there  have  been  many  famous  men  born  or  resident 
there  whose  lives  and  works  have  shown  that  the  so-called 
Anglo-Saxon  does  not  deteriorate  in  the  tropics.  Jamaica, 
indeed,  has  always  held  first  place  in  the  cause  of  West 
Indian  civilization,  as  evidenced  not  only  in  individual 
cases,  but  by  her  literary  and  scientific  societies. 

So  long  ago  as  1775  (to  instance  a  noteworthy  act  in 
a  slave  colony)  a  debating  society  in  Kingston  determined 
by  a  majority  that  "the  trade  to  Africa  for  slaves  is 
neither  consistent  with  sound  policy,  the  laws  of  nature, 


132       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

nor  morality."  Yet  Bristol  and  Liverpool  petitioned 
against  its  restriction,  says  the  historian,  and  the  Earl  of 
Dartmouth  (president  of  the  board  of  trade)  declared : 
"  We  cannot  allow  the  colonies  to  check  or  discourage  in 
any  degree  a  traffic  so  beneficial  to  the  nation." 

That  same  year,  also,  1775,  the  Assembly  of  Jamaica 
petitioned  his  Majesty  in  favor  of  the  Americans,  in  their 
forthcoming  struggle.  Their  petition  was  disregarded, 
however,  and  in  consequence  of  the  war,  as  the  Jamaicans 
had  foreseen  would  be  the  case,  many  articles  neces- 
sary in  the  West  Indies  rose  to  four  times  their  usual 
price. 

It  is  most  interesting  to  note  at  the  present  time  that 
not  only  has  Great  Britain's  attitude  toward  her  suffering 
colony  been  consistently  oppressive,  but  that  Jamaica's 
attitude  as  toward  us  has  been  constantly  friendly,  and  in 
a  measure  prescient  of  that  great  change  which  shall  some 
time  bring  her  into  closer  relations  with  our  country. 
That  change  may  not  come  about  in  this  century;  but 
eventually  we  shall  acquire,  not  alone  Jamaica,  but  all  her 
sister  islands  of  the  Caribbean  Sea — those  glittering  gems 
in  a  chain  which  links  us  to  that  country  for  our  future 
commercial  expansion — the  continent  of  South  America. 

James  Anthony  Froude,  who  was  in  Jamaica  in  1887, 
has  this  paragraph  in  his  **  The  English  in  the  West 
Indies,"  referring  to  the  British  islands :  *'  The  Ameri- 
cans will  not  touch  them  politically,  but  they  will  trade 
with  them;  they  will  bring  their  capital  and  skill  and 
knowledge  among  them,  and  make  the  islands  more  pros- 
perous than  ever  they  were — on  one  condition :  they  will 
risk  nothing  in  such  enterprises  as  long  as  the  shadow 
hangs  over  them  of  a  possible  government  by  a  black 
majority  I " 


JAMAICA,  QUEEN  OF  THE  ANTILLES    133 

When  in  Kingston,  the  traveler  will — at  least  he  ought 
to — visit  the  mercantile  establishment  of  "  MacNish,  Lim- 
ited," founded  and  presided  over  by  Mr.  Thomas  Mac- 
Nish, a  stalwart  Scotchman,  who  has  lived  in  the  West 
Indies  nearly  forty  years,  acquired  a  competency  by  hard 
and  honest  labor  in  his  business,  maintained  himself  in 
health  through  many  seasons  of  fever  and  hurricane,  and 
(incidentally,  be  it  mentioned),  has  raised  a  family  uf 
sixteen  children  of  whom  any  man  might  well  be  proud. 
Mr.  MacNish  (who  ought  to  know),  is  constantly  point- 
ing out  to  the  Jamaicans  their  mistake  in  allying  them- 
selves, politically  and  commercially,  with  Britain,  rather 
than  with  the  United  States. 

As  Mr.  MacNish  has,  time  and  again,  printed  In  the 
local  papers  of  Kingston  facts  and  figures  which  irre- 
futably maintain  his  position,  I  am  betraying  no  confi- 
dence in  publishing  the  substance  of  what  may  be  called 
the  "  inside  history  "  of  Jamaica's  government. 

"  Someone,"  says  Mr.  MacNish,  "  has  called  our  Gov- 
ernment a  benevolent  despotism.  Benevolent  humbug! 
We  have  no  Government — only  tax  collectors!  We 
have  no  citizens — only  taxpayers,  and  the  laboring 
classes  are  only  economic  slaves.  Land  laborers,  18  cents 
per  day  for  men,  and  12  cents  a  day  for  women,  and  all 
food  stufifs  and  necessaries  of  life  taxed  the  heaviest  of 
any  place  under  the  Union  Jack !  Coolies  are  imported, 
and  by  contract  are  to  get  24  cents  per  day.  They  live 
on  rice,  on  which  the  import  duty  is  3  shillings  per  cwt., 
and  ghee,  which  is  2  pence  per  pound.  Common  flour  is 
taxed  8  shillings  per  barrel,  etc.      [See  list  appended.] 

"  Jamacia  is  doomed  to  poverty  and  hunger,  unless  the 
miraculous  happens.  Sir  David  Barbour,  K.  C.  S.  I., 
who  was  sent  out  by  the  British  Government  to  report 


134       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

upon  the  causes  of  Jamaica's  depression,  was  astonished 
when  his  attention  was  called  to  the  manner  in  which  all 
articles,  mainly  food  stuffs,  were  discriminated  against 
by  Jamaica,  to  the  tune  of  54  per  cent. 

**  Here  is  the  list,  as  it  appears  in  the  Barbour  Report : 

"  Foodstuffs  and  necessaries  of  life  which  the  people  in  Jamaica 
can  only  get  at  a  fair  living  price  from  the  United  States,  and 
the  import  duties  on  same : 

COST.  DUTY, 

Flour,  baking,  barrel,  196  lbs $3.60  $1.92 

Flour,  shop,  barrel,   196  lbs 2.75  1.92 

Crackers,    100    lbs 3.00  i.oo 

Corn   Meal,   barrel,    196  lbs 2.15  0.48 

Hams,    100    lbs 10.00  4.00 

Lard,  5  lb.  tins,   100  lbs 7.00  2.00 

Butter,  5  lb.  tins,   100  lbs 22.00  4.00 

Oleomargarine,  5  lb.  tins,  100  lbs 8.00  4.00 

Matches,  50  gross  boxes,  45  in  box...  15.00  21.60 

Kerosene,  100  gals,  in  tins,  150  test  best  8.50  12.75 

Salt   Beef,    100   lbs 5.00  1.80 

Salt    Pork,    100   lbs 4.50  1.80 

Sausages,    100    lbs 12.50  4.00 

Bacon,    100    lbs 11.75  4-00 

Mutton,   100  lbs.   frozen 8.50        20%  1.75 

$124.25  $67.02    54% 

Average. 

"  Jamaica's  oranges  are  shut  out  of  the  markets  of  the 
States  by  the  6  shillings  protective  duty  in  favor  of  Cali- 
fornia and  Florida,  and  should  the  President  of  the 
United  States  have  his  attention  called  to  the  un-British 
import  duties  on  America  produce,  by  which  the  balance 
of  trade  is  nigh  $4,000,000  per  annum  against  his 
couiltry  and  in  favor  of  Breat  Britain,  he  would  be 
compelled  to  demand  fair  trade,  or  a  tax  upon  our  pro- 
duce. With  a  fair  import  tax  on  American  foodstuff 
and  necessaries  of  life,  double  the  quantity  would  be  used 
here,  and  an  equable  trade  arise  between  the  two 
countries." 


JAMAICA,  QUEEN  OF  THE  ANTILLES    135 

Revenue. 

Import   duties    £381,952103    od 

Licenses    and    excise 190,973    4  i^ 

Fees,   stamps    70,321     o  ij 

Postoffice,  telegraphs    32,804  18  5 J 

Railway    142,305    9  10 

Petties,  balance    37,6i7    7  9J 


^855,974  los  3id 
General  Expenditure. 

Charges   of  debt £209,208  3s  od 

Governor   and   staff 6,745  2  6 

States    subsidy    to    England....  20,000  o  o 

Education    55,423  6  9 

Medical     49,799  5  4i 

Public  works  and  buildings 64,232  10  7 

Railway    80,341  7  3 

Judicial    (law,    not    justice)....  38,290  18  9J 

Police  and  prisons 75,847  7  3| 

Military,    militia     (to    fight    the 

Yankees  who  support  us)  . . .  12,636  19  5 

Subsidy  telegraph    2,500  o  o 

Petty  officials,  customs,  etc 173,721  12  loj 

£788,846  14s  2d 
Debts. 
Net   present   liability £3,487,452  19s  7d 

Exports. 

United   States   £i,539,375    9s    7H 

Britain     393,042    5      2^ 

Elsewhere    287,21913      8 


£2,219,637  8s  6d 
Imports. 

United  States  £803,070  15s  lod 

Britain    997,444    6      8 

Elsewhere    190,369  13      8 

£1,990,884  1 6s  2d 
Of  imports  £39,692  is  9d  are  free:     United  States  £470  os  od; 
British  £39,222  is  9d. 


136       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

"  The  contractor  for  the  railway  to  Port  Antonio  paid 
laborers  a  dollar  a  day,  and  stated  that  he  did  not  desire 
better  value  than  the  black  men  gave  at  that  wage;  but 
at  twenty  cents  and  a  shilling,  they  are  slowly  starving 
to  death.  Out  of  this  pittance,  even,  they  are  obliged  to 
pay  the  most  extortionate  and  unjust  of  import  duties 
on  foodstuffs — which  can  only  be  had  from  the  United 
States — the  nation  which  keeps  us  alive  by  taking  two- 
thirds  of  our  products  free  of  duties  !  " 

These  are  some  of  Mr.  MacNish's  facts,  and  he  backs 
them  up  with  most  convincing  figures.  Respecting  his 
suggestion  to  the  Royal  Commissioner,  that  retrenchment 
begin  with  a  reduction  in  salaries  of  department  heads, 
such  as  the  governor  general  with  his  $30,000  a  year, 
and  the  attorney  general  with  $7500,  etc.,  Sir  David 
demurred,  on  the  ground  that  a  lower-paid  official  might 
render  poorer  service. (?)  As  a  sigh-salaried  official 
himself,  the  Commissioner  evidently  had  a  fellow-feeling 
for  the  Jamaica  incumbents  that  was  vastly  more  than 
"  wondrous  kind." 


VIII 
A  FEW  THINGS  TO  BE  SEEN  IN  JAMAICA 

A  land  of  lavish  hospitality  —  The  country  inns  and  great 
houses  of  the  estates  —  A  highway  that  engirdles  the  island 
—  Trip  to  the  Peak  of  Blue  Mountain  —  Hope  River,  Cin- 
chona, and  Newcastle  cantonments  —  Government  botanical 
and  experimental  stations  —  King':.  House,  when  Sir  Henry 
Blake  was  Governor-General  —  Up-Park  Camp  and  Hope 
Gardens  —  Castleton  Gardens  on  the  Wag  Water  —  Spanish 
Town,  the  "  City  of  the  Dead  "  —  Beautiful  scenery  of  the 
Bog  Walk  —  Saint  Thomas  in  ye  Vale,  the  Cockpit  Country, 
Morant  Bay,  and  the  thermal  springs  of  Bath  on  Garden 
River — Cane  River  and  Three-fingered  Jack — Manchioneal ; 
John  Crow  Mountains  and  Moore  Town,  home  of  the  famous 
Maroons  —  Old  Cudjoe,  king  of  Nanny  Town,  and  the  dance 
he  led  the  soldiers  —  Pimento  groves  of  Saint  Ann's,  and  the 
falls  of  Roaring  River  —  The  bay  Columbus"  stayed  in  when 
wrecked  —  Famous  men  who  have  been  in  Jamaica  —  Its 
natural  history  —  Schools,  churches,  and  church-goers  — 
Proverbs  of  the  English  negroes. 

WITH  more  than  seven  hundred  miles  of  mag- 
nificent roads,  leading  to  all  the  attractive 
and  commercial  points  of  the  island,  some 
of  them  winding  over  hills  and  mountains  to  an  eleva- 
tion of  4000  feet,  some  again  following  the  trend  of  the 
coast,  with  branches  here  and  there  to  interesting  places, 
and  with  every  mile  something  rare  and  beautiful  for 
northern  eyes  to  view,  Jamaica  is  certainly  the  paradise 
of  cyclist,  automobilist,  and  pedestrian. 
By  means  of  the  numerous  highways  and  their  byways, 

137 


138       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

the  far-seeing  English  residents  of  Jamaica  have  made 
available  to  the  tourist  some  of  the  most  beautiful  scenery 
of  tropical  America.  As  the  island  is  English  in  its  gov- 
ernment, speech,  customs,  and  style  of  living,  possessing 
numerous  small  inns  and  road-houses  scattered  through- 
out the  country  districts,  as  well  as  good  hotels  in  town 
and  city,  while  the  most  hospitable  of  islanders  are  domi- 
ciled in  stately  mansions  and  "  great  houses  "  on  the 
estates,  one  might  put  in  a  full  month  to  advantage. 

By  all  means,  if  time  allows,  take  the  great  drive  over 
the  chain  of  public  highways  that  engirdles  the  island, 
running  mainly  along  the  coast,  and  for  which  you  may 
hire  a  "  rig  "  in  Kingston,  two  horses  and  a  driver,  for 
about  a  pound  a  day.  Failing  the  drive,  take  the  coastal 
steamer  to  the  various  harbors,  which  costs  about  the 
same  per  diem,  but  with  meals  and  state-room  included. 
But  the  highway  journey  is  by  all  odds  the  better  way  of 
seeing  the  island,  for  the  varied  pictures,  of  tropical  vege- 
tation, of  roaring  rivers,  of  dashing  surf,  of  overhanging 
palms,  pimento,  orange,  banana,  and  coffee  groves,  and 
paradisaical  plantations,  are  actually  unsurpassed.  Add 
to  these  the  beauties  of  the  winding  paths  and  lanes, 
the  balmy  air  (at  the  right  season),  the  tropical  fruits  and 
beverages,  the  unique  natives  and  their  huts — all  these 
combine  to  swell  an  experience  really  worth  something. 

Now,  Kingston,  as  already  intimated,  is  vastly  more 
interesting  as  to  its  environment  than  its  intrinsic  attrac- 
tions. It  is  well  situated  as  a  point  of  departure  for  other 
and  better  places,  for  example,  the  Blue  Mountain  Peak, 
which  towers  above  it  more  than  seven  thousand  feet. 
By  driving  in  a  buggy  to  Gordon  Town,  arriving  there  at 
daybreak  and  taking  ponies  for  the  mountain  trail,  it  is 
possible  to  accomplish  the  ascent  and  return  in  one  day. 


THINGS    TO    BE    SEEN    IN    JAMAICA    139 

Once  arrived,  and  provided  the  mist  does  not  obscure 
the  view,  you  will  find  beneath  and  around  you  the 
grandest  of  mountain  peaks,  with  their  incomparable  val- 
leys, the  eye  ever  beheld.  The  view  is  indescribable  in  its 
grandeur  and  beauty,  and  the  ride  thither  a  fitting  prelude 
to  the  scene.  There  is  a  hut,  simply  furnished,  at  the 
Peak,  and  it  is  advisable  to  give  at  least  two  days  to  the 
trip,  in  order  to  view  the  cloud  effects  at  sunrise  and 
sunset,  and  to  experience  the  sensation  of  isolation,  on  a 
lofty  pinnacle  in  the  clouds  beneath  a  tropic  sky. 

The  drive  through  the  picturesque  gorge  of  Hope 
River,  with  the  "  ferns  and  plantains  waving  in  the  moist 
air,  cedars,  tamarinds,  gum  trees,  orange  trees,  striking 
their  roots  among  the  clefts  of  the  crags,  and  hanging 
out  over  the  abysses  below  them,"  is  one  of  the  finest 
anywhere  to  be  found.  It  ends  at  Gordon  Town,  whence 
one  may  journey  on  to  New  Castle  cantonments,  where 
troops  are  quartered  for  their  health  on  the  steep  slant 
of  hills  nearly  4000  feet  above  the  sea.  Beyond,  also, 
21  miles  distant  from  Kingston,  is  the  Government  cin- 
chona plantation,  which,  with  its  150  acres,  constitutes 
an  experimental  station  for  the  cultivation  of  exotic  eco- 
nomic plants,  chiefly  tropical  in  character,  though  the 
altitude  is  from  5000  to  6000  feet  above  sea  level. 

One  of  the  most  enjoyable  experiences  of  my  life  was 
a  visit  I  once  paid  to  Cinchona,  at  the  invitation  of  the 
director  of  Public  Gardens,  Mr.  Wm.  Fawcett,  author  of 
a  valuable  book  on  the  "  Economic  Plants  of  Jamaica," 
and  to  whose  intelligent  supervision  of  its  parks  and  gar- 
dens the  island  is  vastly  indebted.  The  estate  is  called 
Cinchona,  from  the  main  purpose  for  which  it  was 
founded — to  ascertain  if  that  valuable  tree  could  be  intrg- 
duced  with  prpiit  into  this  island. 


I40       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

It  was  found  that  it  could  be,  and  not  only  that,  but 
now  it  may  be  seen  absolutely  running  wild  in  the  moun- 
tains everywhere.  But  it  was  a  parallel  case  to  that  of  the 
old  man  who  taught  his  horse  to  eat  shavings,  "  Just  as  the 
critter  got  to  liking  shavings,  it  up  and  died."  So  with 
cinchona.  Just  as  it  became  acclimated  and  it  was  shown 
that  it  would  grow  well  in  Jamaica,  the  price  went  down, 
and  now  you  may  have  all  the  "  Peruvian  bark  "  you  want 
for  the  asking.  However,  other  things  are  grown  here 
besides  cinchona — such,  for  instance,  as  tea,  coffee,  rare 
flowers,  and  valuable  woods. 

One  thinks  of  Jamaica,  of  course,  as  being  a  tropical 
island,  where  heat  and  yellow  fever  reign  at  least  half 
the  year  and  rain  and  rheumatism  the  other  half.  But, 
in  fact,  it  has  within  its  area  of  4000  square  miles  every 
variety  of  climate  and  glorious  range  of  scenery  that  the 
heart  of  man  could  desire.  One  morning,  I  remember,  I 
walked  out  before  breakfast  and  picked  most  delicious 
wild  strawberries  (which,  as  you  know,  only  grow  in  a 
temperate  climate),  and  then  strolled  down  into  a  ravine 
filled  with  immense  tree-ferns,  which  are  never  found 
anywhere  but  in  a  tropical  country. 

It  is  in  this  favored  section  among  the  hills  that  the  best 
coffee  estates  are  found,  above  2000  and  3000  feet  ele- 
vation, and  from  this  region  is  sent  out  the  famous  Blue 
Mountain  coffee,  which  commands  the  highest  price  in  the 
London  markets.  I  mention  this  fact  to  show  the  wide 
range  not  only  of  a  climate,  but  of  productions,  open  to 
one  who  might  wish  to  attempt  farming  or  fruit  growing 
in  this  or  any  other  island  of  similar  characteristics. 

Another  delightful  spot  that  lingers  in  memory,  linked 
with  dinners  the  like  of  which  no  mortal  ever  surpassed, 
is  King's  House,  the  official  residence  of  the  Governor 


THINGS    TO    BE    SEEN    IN   JAMAICA    141 

General,  where,  at  the  time  I  was  a  guest  within  its  pre- 
cincts, Sir  Henry  Blake  and  his  charming  lady  resided. 
Sir  Henry  went  from  Jamaica  to  the  far  side  of  the  world, 
having  been  promoted  to  the  governorship  of  Hong  Kong, 
in  which  little  island  he  may  have  greater  scope  for  his 
remarkable  abilities,  but  certainly  cannot  accomplish 
more,  in  any  direction,  than  he  did  in  Jamaica. 


The  Governor  &  Lady  Blake 

request  the  honour  of 

Mr.  Oher's 

Company  at  Dinner 

on  Saturday,  April  4th,  at  //jo  o'clock. 

King' 

s  House. 

An    answer  is  requested 

to  the  A.  D.  C.  in  waiting. 

King's  House  is  a  fine  old  mansion,  with  a  semi- 
detached dining  and  ballroom,  which  alone  cost  $25,000, 
and  the  grounds  around  it  are  well  laid  out.  The  Lig- 
uanea  Plain,  in  which  are  situated  the  chief  attractions 
around  Kingston,  contains  within  its  limits  the  noted 
Up-Park  Camp,  the  cantonment  of  the  West  India  regi- 
ment, and  at  the  foothills  is  the  Hope  Garden  reservation, 
containing  more  than  200  acres  devoted  to  tropical 
horticulture. 

Nineteen  miles  distant  from  Kingston,  out  toward  Saint 
Catherine's  Peak,  on  the  Wag- Water  River,  is  the  Gov- 
ernment's greatest  botanic  station,  Castleton  Gardens, 
where  tropical  arboriculture  is  carried  out  on  an  exten- 
sive scale.  The  three  stations  of  Castleton,  Hope,  and 
Cinchona  form  a  combined  system  which  vies  with,  per- 


142        OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

haps  surpasses,  the  tropical  gardens  of  Trinidad,  while 
Cuba  has  nothing  to  equal  it. 

Mention  has  been  made  of  Spanish  Town,  the  original 
La  Vega  of  the  Spaniards,  which  is  only  a  dozen  miles 
from  Kingston,  by  rail,  on  the  banks  of  the  Rio  Cobre.  It 
was  once  the  seat  of  government,  and  the  find  old  build- 
ings are  here  that  were  once  occupied  by  the  colonial  offi- 
cials, also  the  oldest  cathedral  in  the  British  colonies. 
Spanish  Town  has  a  charm  all  its  own,  but  it  savors 
chiefly  of  the  antique.  Owing  to  its  quietude  and  the 
great  number  of  tombs  and  mural  tablets  in  its  old  cathe- 
dral, it  is  frequently  called  a  city  of  the  dead ;  but  might 
well  become  a  cheerful  place  of  residence.  One  of  its 
ornaments  is  a  statue  of  Lord  Rodney,  in  a  temple  of 
great  artistic  merit,  flanked  by  two  of  the  brass  guns 
taken  from  the  "  Ville  de  Paris,"  in  1781.  This  statue 
was  once  walked  off  to  Kingston,  and  there  set  up  facing 
the  harbor ;  but  returned  to  its  original  foundation  when 
Spanish  Town  protested. 

Do  not  omit  going  to  view  the  beauties  of  the  Bog- 
Walk,  when  you  are  in  Spanish  Town,  for  they  are  abso- 
lutely unrivaled.  The  Bog-Walk,  negro-English  for 
Boca  del  Agua,  is  a  beautiful  gorge  of  the  Rio  Cobre, 
where  (the  talented  Lady  Brassey  once  wrote),  one  finds 
**  everything  that  makes  scenery  lovely — wood,  water, 
and  the  wildest  luxuriance  of  tropical  foliage,  mingled 
and  arranged  by  the  artistic  hands  of  Nature  in  one  of 
her  happiest  moods." 

Still  farther  up  the  river  (which  is  one  of  the  most 
picturesque  streams  in  Jamaica),  is  found  a  veritable 
natural  bridge,  the  giant  key-stone  of  which  is  about  60 
feet  above  the  water  and  draped  with  beautiful  vines. 
Not  the  least  of  Rio  Cobra's  attractions  is  the  hotel  that 


THINGS  TO  BE  SEEN  IN  JAMAICA      143 

bears  its  name,  from  which,  and  from  the  several  board- 
ing-houses in  and  near  the  town,  many  pleasant  excur- 
sions may  be  taken. 

By  means  of  the  railroads  and  highways,  the  fascinat- 
ing interior  country  of  Jamaica  has  been  thrown  open  to 
the  traveler,  who  may  journey  without  discomfort  to  such 
quaint  and  quiet  places  as  Saint  Thomas  in  ye  Vale, 
Mandeville  (hymns  in  praise  of  which  have  been  loudly 
sung  by  Froude  and  others),  Moneague,  and  the  won- 
derful "  Cockpit  Country  "  in  the  limestone  region,  with 
its  abysmal  pits  and  caverns. 

If  you  have  time,  visit  the  bunch  of  parishes.  Saint 
Thomas,  Portland,  St.  Mary,  and  St.  Ann,  in  and  near  the 
eastern  end  of  the  island.  One  might,  it  seems  to  me, 
spend  a  week  or  two  in  any  one  of  them.  The  Blue 
Mountain  range  forms  the  boundary  chiefly  between 
Portland  and  St.  Thomas,  hence  numerous  rivers  descend 
to  the  sea  on  either  side,  north  and  south,  all  of  them  pic- 
turesque and  some  of  them  historic.  A  deep  inlet  in  the 
south  shore  of  Saint  Thomas  is  Morant  Bay,  famous  in 
modern  times  as  the  chief  seat  of  the  great  rebellion  of 
1865,  led  by  the  colored  man,  Gordon,  in  whose  defense 
Froude  pleads  eloquently,  but  whose  memory  is  not  held 
very  sacred  in  Jamaica.  The  man  who  caused  him  to  be 
hanged,  and  who  was  afterward  tried  for  his  "  murder," 
Governor  Eyre,  had  been  a  famous  explorer  in  Australia, 
and  passed  his  old  age  in  retirement  in  England. 

North  of  Morant  Bay,  a  few  miles,  on  Garden  River 
(probably  so  called  on  account  of  the  first  botanic  garden 
in  Jamaica  having  been  established  here,  in  1774),  is 
Bath,  a  pretty  little  hamlet  famous  for  its  thermal  springs 
and  mineral  waters.  The  waters  here  are  said  to  be  effi- 
cacious in  the  cure  of  rheumatism,  skin  diseases,  etc.,  and 


144        OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

>■■ 
one  writer  mentions  that  their  continued  use  "  sometimes 
produces  almost  the  same  joyous  effect  as  inebriation,  on 
which  account  some  notorious  topers  have  quit  their 
liquors  for  a  while  and  come  to  the  springs  to  enjoy  the 
singular  felicity  of  getting  drunk  with  water!  "  Another 
famous  spa  of  the  island  is  that  of  Milk  River,  to  the 
southwest  of  Kingston,  while  still  another  is  to  be  found 
not  far  from  the  city,  to  the  northward. 

On  the  way  to  Bath  we  have  passed  the  one-time  resi- 
dence of  a  notorious  native  of  the  island.  Three-fingered 
Jack,  whose  cave  up  the  ravine  of  Cane  River  with  its 
attractive  falls  is  only  ten  or  twelve  miles  from  Kingston. 
Three-fingered  Jack  had  an  eye  for  the  beautiful,  and  also 
to  business,  when  he  located  there  and  plied  his  nefarious 
calling  of  highwayman  on  the  Kingston-Morant  road, 
where  he  used  to  hold  up  the  passing  travelers.  He  was 
killed  by  a  Maroon,  who  was  given  therefor  by  Govern- 
ment a  pension  of  twenty  pounds  a  year  for  life — and  he 
lived  to  a  good  old  age,  after  the  manner  of  pensioners 
and  charity  dependents  all  over  the  world. 

On  the  Yallahs  River,  about  halfway  between  Kings- 
ton and  Port  Morant,  may  be  seen  **  Judgment  Cliff," 
which  is  the  remaining  half  of  a  mountain  split  by  the 
great  earthquake  of  1692.  It  is  a  thousand  feet  in  height, 
and  though  produced  by  a  cataclysm  of  nature,  by  the 
natives  is  held  to  have  been  caused  for  the  special  pun- 
ishment of  a  depraved  Dutchman,  a  planter,  who  was 
buried  beneath  the  fallen  half  of  the  mountain. 

Around  on  the  east  point  of  the  island  is  Manchioneal 
Bay,  which  was  once  the  scene  of  adventures  in  "  Tom 
Cringle's  Log,"  and  inland  from  this  point,  over  behind 
the  John  Crow  Mountains,  lies  the  once-famous  Moore 
Town,  chief  settlement  of  the  Jamaica  Maroons.     The 


THINGS   TO   BE   SEEN    IN   JAMAICA    145 

Maroons,  as  my  readers  may  or  may  not  know,  had  their 
origin  in  the  Spanish  slaves  who  ran  away  from  their 
masters  at  the  time  the  EngHsh  took  the  island,  about  the 
middle  of  the  seventeenth  century.  They  fled  .  to  the 
mountains,  and  there  they  stayed,  and  their  descendants 
after  them,  though  the  best  of  English  soldiers  chased 
them  about  for  a  hundred  years.  In  the  year  1733  two 
full  regiments  of  regular  troops,  besides  all  the  militia  of 
the  island,  were  searching  for  them ;  but  they  never  took 
a  prisoner  or  killed  many  of  these  wily  blacks,  who  them- 
selves neither  gave  quarter  nor  asked  it  of  their  pursuers. 

Their  leader  was  an  uncouth  dwarf  named  Cudjoe, 
and  their  retreat  in  the  mountains  was  known  as  Nanny 
Town.  Cudjoe  was  a  pagan  and,  with  all  his  followers, 
worshiped  the  African  deities  of  obeah,  or  the  gods  of 
sorcery-working  wizards.  At  one  time  the  troops  were 
on  their  trail  for  nine  successive  years,  and  yet  at  the  end 
of  that  time  the  Maroons  were  more  numerous  than  at  the 
beginning,  owing  to  accessions  from  runaway  slaves. 

Old  Cudjoe  himself  was  said  to  be  in  league  with  the 
devil.  He  looked  like  the  devil  anyway,  the  soldiers  said, 
and  fought  like  the  devil,  too.  Many  a  time  did  he  draw 
the  white  troops  into  an  ambush  in  the  wild  ravines,  only 
to  slaughter  them  like  sheep,  till  the  streams  ran  with 
blood  and  but  few  survivors  escaped. 

Moore  Town  is  situated  in  the  parish  of  Portland,  the 
chief  city  of  which  is  Port  Antonio,  which  ranks  second 
only  to  Kingston  in  business,  and  leads  it  in  bustling 
enterprise.  Many  of  the  Maroons,  whose  ancestors  were 
never  so  happy  as  when  '*  potting  "  the  whites,  are  now 
engaged  in  raising  bananas  for  the  United  Fruit  Com- 
pany, which  owns  the  principal  portion  of  Port  Antonio, 
and  indeed  of  the  parish,  if  not  of  the  island. 


146       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

The  really  historic  parish  of  Jamaica  is  that  of  Saint 
Ann,  on  the  north  coast  about  midway  the  island,  the 
scenery,  also,  being  all  that  the  heart  of  man  could  desire. 
"  Earth  has  nothing  more  lovely  than  its  pastures  and 
pimento  groves,"  says  an  old  writer;  ''nothing  more 
enchanting  than  its  hills  and  vales,  delicious  in  verdure 
and  redolent  with  the  fragrance  of  spices."  One  should 
ramble  beneath  the  spicy  pimento  trees,  inhaling  the  deli- 
cious odors,  and  gaze  out  seaward  over  the  rounded  hills 
and  pasture-lands.  The  largest  falls  in  the  island,  those 
of  Roarring  River,  are  in  this  parish,  almost  within  sound 
of  the  sea,  and  they  are  also  among  the  most  beautiful 
cascades  to  be  found  in  the  world. 

THE  INSTITUTE  OF  JAMAICA 

Owing  to  the  success  which  attended  Mr.  Ober's  recent  lecture 
on  the  Chicago  Exhibition,  the  Governors  of  the  Institute  have 
invited  that  gentleman  to  read  a  paper  on  the  Voyages  of  Colum- 
bus, a  subject  which  he  has  studied  for  many  years.  Mr.  Ober 
is  shortly  about  to  make  investigations  in  St.  Ann's  as  to  Colum- 
bus's residence  in  Jamaica,  and  he  hopes  to  be  able  to  comply 
with  the  invitation  before  he  leaves  the  island.  The  paper  will 
treat  especially  on  the  West  Indian  portion  of  the  great  Ex- 
plorer's travels. — The  Colonial  Standard  and  Jamaica  Despatch, 
Monday,  April  20,  1891. 

This  reference  to  Columbus,  the  discoverer  of  Jamaica, 
reminds  me  that  the  island  has  fared  full  well,  so  far  as 
having  been  visited  by  distinguished  men  is  concerned. 
There  were  some,  like  the  infamous  Sir  Henry  Morgan, 
who  came  with  evil  intent,  to  be  sure ;  but  he  and  his 
companion  buccaneers  contribnted  to  the  enrichment  of 
Jamaica,  and  now  they  have  gone  to  their  rewards,  the 
island  gets  the  benefit  of  the  fine  halo  of  romance  they  left 
behind  them.     This,  viewed  as  an  asset,  counts  for  some- 


THINGS    TO    BE    SEEN    IN   JAMAICA    147 

thing  with  the  tourists,  and  so  does  the  site  of  Port  Royal, 
once  "  the  world's  wickedest  city,"  and  on  that  account 
well  worth  visiting. 

Sir  William  Phipps,  the  New  England  Yankee  who 
recovered  so  many  tons  of  silver  from  sunken  Spanish 
galleons  off  the  coast  of  Santo  Domingo,  outfitted  at  Port 
Royal,  and  the  Duke  of  Albemarle,  who  was  then  Royal 
Governor,  obtained  the  (British)  lion's  share  of  the  plun- 
der. Sir  Hans  Sloane,  putative  founder  of  the  British 
Museum,  came  out  with  x\lbemarle,  resided  in  the  island 
two  years,  1685-86,  and  wrote  the  Natural  History  of 
Jamaica,  which  was  published  in  1707-25. 

The  best  work  on  the  birds  of  Jamaica  is  by  Philip 
Henry  Gosse,  whose  fascinating  book  was  published  in 
185 1.  Since  the  days  of  Gosse,  and  especially  since  those 
of  Sloane,  the  natural  history  of  the  island  has  changed 
considerably,  owing  to  the  introduction  and  pernicious 
activity  of  the  mongoose;  but  there  are  still  some  birds 
of  fine  plumage,  hosts  of  butterflies,  fourteen  kinds  of 
fire-beetles,  a  few  species  of  harmless  snakes,  lizards, 
iguanas,  alligators,  and  fresh-water  fishes. 

Some  of  the  streams  are  cold  enough  to  be  the  haunts 
of  trout,  but  the  only  game  fish  is  the  mountain  mullet, 
which  on  occasions  rises  to  a  fly  with  dash  and  vigor. 
The  hunting  is  not  good,  being  confined  to  wild  pigeons, 
doves,  alligators,  and  water-fowl;  but  the  sea  adjacent  to 
the  coast  furnishes  a  great  variety  of  fish  which  may  be 
taken  with  hook  and  line.  It  is  in  its  botanical  and 
marine  treasures  that  Jamaica  excels,  and  particularly  in 
the  number  of  its  ferns  can  hardly  be  surpassed. 

It  can  hardly  be  claimed  for  the  blacks  of  Jamaica,  who 
are  about  forty  times  as  numerous  as  the  whites,  that  they 
have  produced  any  remarkable  intellects,  like  the  famous 


148       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

black  Chief  Justice  of  Barbados ;  but  as  a  class  they  are 
shrewd  and  by  no  means  ignorant.  The  island  is  well 
provided  with  schools,  there  being  about  a  thousand 
public  and  free,  which  are  universally  attended,  besides 
several  training  colleges,  private  and  denominational. 
Churches,  there  are,  everywhere,  and  well-attended,  espe- 
cially by  the  black  and  colored  people,  who,  of  a  Sunday, 
may  be  seen  trooping  over  the  roads  in  country  aoid  town, 
clad  in  their  brightest  raiment  and  wearing  their  broadest 
smiles. 

In  Jamaica,  perhaps  more  than  in  any  other  British 
island  of  the  West  Indies,  we  find  a  deal  of  wisdom  in 
the  utterances  of  the  black  people,  who  display  some 
knowledge  of  the  world  and  human  nature. 

It  is  now  70  years  since  the  Jamaica  negroes  were 
emancipated  and  100  since  the  blacks  drove  the  French 
out  of  Haiti ;  yet  neither  people  has  made  any  great 
advance,  notwithstanding  the  efforts  of  priests  and  par- 
sons, schools,  and  enlightened  paternal  governments. 

But  the  negro  has  shown  himself  virile  and  long  suflFer- 
ing,  forgetful  of  the  wrongs  done  him  during  the  past  of 
slavery.     And  he  has  evolved  a  distinct  school  of  philos- 
ophy, as  evinced  by  certain  proverbs,  of  which  a  few  of 
the  choicest  are  appended: 
"  Alligator  lay  egg,  but  him  no  fowl." 
"  Ants  foller  fat " — no  smoke  without  some  fire. 
"  Bad  family  better  dan  empty  pigsty." 
"  Beggar  beg  from  beggar,  him  neber  git  rich." 
"  Behind  dawg,  you  say  '  dawg ; '  befo'  him,  *  Mistah  Dawg.* " 
"  Better  fo'   fowl   say  *  dawg  dead '   dan   fo*   dawg  say  '  fowl 
dead*" — because  dog  can  kill  fowl,  while  the  latter  is  harmless. 
"  Big  blanket  mek  man  sleep  late." 
"  Braggin'  riber  neber  drown  somebuddy." 
"  Brown  man's  wife  eat  cockroach  in  corner  " — does  something 
underhand. 


THINGS    TO    BE    SEEN    IN    JAMAICA    149 

"Buckra  work  neber  done"  —  btickra  (white  man)  an  African 
word. 

"  Btdl  horn  neber  too  heaby  fo'  he  head." 

"  Cashew  neber  bear  guaba  "  —  can't  gather  figs  of  thistles. 

"  Cane  no  grow  like  grass." 

"  Cedar  bo'd  laugh  after  dead  man "  —  cedar  is  used  for 
coffins. 

"  Cockroach  neber  in  de  right  befo'  fowl " — might  makes  right. 

"  Coward  man  keep  whole  bone." 

"  Crab  no  walk,  him  no  get  fat ;  walk  too  much,  him  lose  he 
claw." 

"  *  Come  see  me'  is  nuttin,  but  '  Come  lib  wiv  me'  is  sometin." 

"  Crab  walk  too  much,  him  get  in  kutakoo "  —  kutakoo  is  a 
kind  of  crab  soup. 

"  Cuss-cuss  neber  bore  hole  in  'kin "  —  hard  words  break  no 
bones. 

"  Cow  lose  him  tail,  Goramighty  brush  fly  fer  um  "  —  the  Lord 
tempers  the  wind  to  the  shorn  lamb. 

"  Cotton  tree  fall  down,  nannygoat  jump  ober  um." 

"  Dawg  no  eat  dawg  "  —  honor  among  thieves. 

"  Don't  care  keep  big  house." 

"  Ebry  dawg  know  he  dinner  time." 

"  Full  belly  tell  hungry  belly  take  heart." 

"  Goat  say  him  hab  wool ;    sheep  say  him  hab  hair." 

"  Greedy  puppy  neber  fat." 

"  Habee-habee  no  wantee;  wantee-wantee  no  habee"  —  waste 
not,  want  not. 

"  If  snakes  bite  yo',  when  yo'  see  lizard  yo'  run." 

"  Ebry  John  Crow  t'ink  he  own  pickney  white " — our  own 
child's  the  best. 

"  Little  crab  hole  spoil  big  race  horse." 

"Little  watah  kill  big  fiah." 

These  are  only  a  few  of  the  numerous  proverbs  current 
among  the  black  inhabitants  of  these  islands ;  but  they 
show,  as  I  stated  at  the  beginning,  that  the  negro  has  a 
shrewd  wisdom  all  his  own;  that  there  is  something  to 
him,  for,  as  he  himself  has  said : 

"  You  neber  see  empty  bag  'tan'  up." 


IX 

m  THE  BLACK  AND  BROWN  REPUBLICS 

How  to  reach  Haiti  and  Santo  Domingo  from  Jamaica  —  Port 
au  Prince,  capital  of  Haiti  —  Where  one's  room  is  preferred 
to  his  company  —  The  late  President  Hyppolite  and  Fred 
Douglass —  Why  colored  men  are  sent  to  Haiti  by  our  Gov- 
ernment —  The  island  as  God  made  it  —  And  as  the  black 
man  has  defiled  it  —  The  Haitian  army  and  police  —  Cape 
Haitien  the  northern  capital  —  Where  the  flagship  of  Colum- 
bus was  wrecked  —  Sans  Souci,  La  Ferriere,  the  Black 
King's  palace  and  castle  —  The  vale  of  Millot  —  Tortuga  the 
buccaneers'  island  —  Historic  spots  on  the  Haiti-Santo 
Domingo  coast  —  Val  de  Paraiso  —  Aborigines  and  abori- 
ginal names  —  Origin  of  the  term  Hispaniola  —  Rise  of  the 
filibusteros  —  How  the  Haitians  maintain  a  standard  of  color 
—  Are  the  Dominicans  color-blind?  —  Expelled  by  the  guillo- 
tine route  —  White  man  has  no  rights  in  Haiti  which  the 
black  man  is  bound  to  respect  —  Perils  of  politicians  —  What 
Hyppolite  did  to  the  cobbler —  My  acquaintance  with  two 
despots  —  Great  undeveloped  resources  —  Fanatical  natives  — 
May  a  woman  eat  her  own  children? 

STEAMERS  of  the  Royal  Mail  line  sail  among  the 
islands,  and  if  tourists  wish  to  visit  the  ports  of 
Haiti  or  Santo  Domingo,  they  may  be  taken  along 
either  the  north  or  the  south  coast.  Jacmel,  Port 
au  Prince,  and  Cape  Haitien  were  once  beautiful  places, 
but  the  long  period  of  negro  domination  has  ruined 
them  utterly,  and  there  are  no  acceptable  accommo- 
dations in  any  part  of  either  Haiti  or  Santo  Domingo. 
This  is  all  the  more  regrettable,  as  they  possess  great 
natural  charms,  and  here  also  are  to  be  seen  the  historic 


1 


THE  BLACK  AND  BROWN  REPUBLICS    151 

spots  identified  with  the  discovery  and  settlement  of 
America,  such  as  Isabella,  the  first  town,  and  Santo 
Domingo,  capital  city  of  the  Spanish  portion  of  the  island. 

There  are  many  objects  worthy  of  inspection ;  but  in 
both  portions  of  this  island,  the  western  half  of  which  is 
occupied  by  the  Haitians,  and  the  eastern  by  the  Domin- 
icans, the  roads  are  mere  trails,  full  of  holes  which  are 
pools  of  water  and  mud  in  the  rainy  season,  and  pitfalls 
for  man  and  beast  in  the  dry. 

The  distance  from  Kingston  to  Port  au  Prince  is  2"j(i 
miles,  but  on  arriving  in  the  beautiful  bay  and  getting  a 
near  view  of  the  squalid  city  that  straggles  along  shore, 
one  might  imagine  himself  in  a  diflferent  world.  A  dif- 
ferent world,  indeed,  it  is,  for  the  people  are  French  in 
speech  and  habitudes,  and  there  is  an  air  about  them 
which  plainly  tells  you  they  vastly  prefer  your  room  to 
your  company.  You  may  land  if  you  like,  they  seem  to 
say ;  but  the  sooner  you  leave  the  better :  a  feeling  you 
soon  entertain  without  suggestion. 

As  to  Port  au  Prince,  I  can  bear  testimony  respecting 
its  utter  filthiness,  and  agree  with  a  recent  resident  there 
that  it  may  bear  away  the  palm  of  being  the  most  foul- 
smelling  and  consequently  fever-stricken  city  in  the 
world.  "  Everyone  throws  his  refuse  before  his  door,  so 
that  heaps  of  manure  and  every  species  of  rubbish  incum- 
ber the  way.  The  gutters  are  open,  pools  of  stagnant 
water  obstruct  the  street  everywhere,  and  receive  con- 
stant accession  from  the  inhabitants  using  them  as  cess- 
pools and  sewers.  There  are  a  few  good  buildings  in 
town,  and  none  in  the  country,  the  torch  of  the  incendiary 
being  constantly  applied,  and  no  encouragement  is  offered 
to  rebuild,  through  the  protection  of  government  or  local 
enterprise." 


15^       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

These  incendiary  fires  are  continually  occurring,  and 
are  usually  certain  precursors  of  revolts  or  revolutions. 
The  few  foreigners  in  Haiti  are  there  only  on  sufferance, 
and,  though  the  opportunities  for  making  large  fortunes 
are  many,  yet  few  merchants  have  ever  come  away  with 
much,  for  it  usually  happens  that  about  the  time  a  depart- 
ure is  contemplated  an  incendiary  fire  sweeps  off  the 
accumulations  of  years,  or  the  stores  and  warehouses  are 
plundered  by  revolutionists. 

There  is  a  hotel  in  the  Champ  de  Mars,  not  far  from 
the  President's  Palace,  where  I  have  been  entertained 
fairly  well,  in  days  gone  by ;  and  in  the  Palace  I  was 
once  received  by  the  late  President  Hyppolite,  when  at 
the  height  of  his  power  and  but  two  weeks  before  he  put 
to  death  more  than  two  hundred  of  his  opponents.  It 
was  thought  then  that  the  occasion  justified  the  means 
employed,  for  it  was  either  Hyppolite  or  his  enemies, 
and  the  former  chose  to  make  corpses  of  his  foes. 

Frederick  Douglass  was  minister  at  Port  au  Prince  at 
the  time  of  my  visit,  and  his  secretary  was  a  former 
minister,  Mr.  Bassett,  who  at  the  time  of  Saget's  deposi- 
tion, when  men  were  massacred  by  scores,  sheltered  more 
than  five  hundred  people  and  saved  them  from  being  shot ; 
an  act  of  humanity  for  which  he  was  never  reimbursed. 
Like  the  present  President  of  Haiti,  Hyppolite,  the  tyrant, 
was  big,  blue-black  of  hue,  and  an  old  soldier. 

These  two  representatives  of  the  negro  race  were  such 
striking  contrasts  that  one  instinctively  asked  himself  if 
a  common  descent  were  possible,  for  Hyppolite  resembled 
very  much  a  barbaric  African  potentate,  while  Douglass 
was  a  polished  scholar  and  quite  a  man  of  the  world.  I 
often  tried  to  get  from  the.  latter  an  expression  of  his 
opinion  as  to  the  much-vaunted  **  success  "  of  the  Haitian 


THE  BLACK  AND  BROWN  REPUBLICS    153 

civilization,  but  never  succeeded,  for  the  diplomat  was 
v/ary  and  would  not  commit  himself. 

It  has  been  our  custom,  of  late,  to  send  out  colored 
men  to  Haiti  as  minister  and  consuls ;  but  the  Haitians 
themselves  do  not  like  it  overmuch,  notwithstanding  the 


NISSAGE-SAGET 


HYPPOLITE 

men  are  able  and  excellent ;  for  they  look  around  the 
world  and  perceive  no  colored  men  as  representatives  in 
other  lands,  and  ask  why  we  do  not  treat  all  alike.  They 
used  to  ask  this  question,  in  their  ignorance  not  under- 
standing the  exigencies  of  American  politics,  and  the 
necessity  for  our  Executive  to  provide  for  his  colored 
friends  and  voters  in  some  way  without  giving  too  great 
offense  to  the  preponderating  white  vote.  As  few  white 
men  who  have  been  in  Haiti  once  ever  care  to  go  again, 
it  is  perfectly  safe  to  send  the  colored  office-seeker  there. 


154        OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

But  the  Haitians,  in  their  vanity,  have  at  last  imagined 
that  the  real  reason  is  because  the  white  man  is  not  good 
enough  for  them !  Let  it  go  at  that,  for  Haitian  vanity 
is  something  so  stupendous  that  to  combat  it  would  be  a 
futile  task. 

As  God  made  it,  Haiti  is  a  dream  of  delight ;  as  the 
black  man  has  defiled  it,  no  white  person  can  live  there 
and  be  content.  Provided  the  roads  were  good — though 
they  are  not — we  might  hire  horses  and  a  guide  and 
strike  in  from  Port  au  Prince  for  the  Dominican  terri- 
tory, through  the  high  forests,  and  by  the  way  of  the 
historic  Enriquillo  country,  where  at  one  time  lived  the 
innocent  Indians  whom  the  Spaniards  exterminated. 

A  glimpse  of  what  God  did  for  Haiti  before  the  white 
man  brought  hither  the  black  pagan  from  Africa  may  be 
obtained  by  short  rides  into  the  country ;  but  in  the  town 
there  is  nothing  worth  an  effort  to  see,  except  it  be  the 
"  palace  "  and  the  cathedral,  the  ragged  soldiery,  who 
obtrude  themselves  everywhere,  and  the  equally  disreput- 
able police,  also  disagreeably  ubiquitous  and  persistent 
as  beggars. 

Many  of  the  soldiers  are  stationed  about  the  President's 
palace  in  the  Champ  de  Mars.  The  latter  is  a  large 
plaza  which  more  resembles  a  vacant  city  lot  than  a  pub- 
lic parade  ground,  being  totally  devoid  of  vegetation  and 
incumbered  with  all  sorts  of  rubbish  peculiar  to  the  aver- 
age vacant  lot,  including  the  goat  and  the  tomato  can. 

The  building  itself  is  large,  but  unpretentious,  built 
of  brick  and  wood,  on  the  seaward  side  of  the  Champ  de 
Mars.  A  company  of  ragged  soldiers  is  always  on 
guard,  no  matter  who  the  presidential  incumbent  may 
happen  to  be,  and  a  Gatling  gun  is  mounted  in  the  lower 
hall  in  close  proximity  to  some  neglected  but  beautiful 


THE  BLACK  AND  BROWN  REPUBLICS    155 

statuary,  relics  of  a  past  age  when  one  of  the  excutives 
had  a  spasm  of  refinement  and  undertook  to  embellish 


'^^itiU^  /^  ^/^^ 


the  palace.     The  white  marbles  to-day  are  soiled  with 


156        OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

the  finger  marks  of  the  dirty  soldiery  who  lounge  about 
on  guard,  but  otherwise  they  have  not  received  much 
attention. 

The  soldiers  are  nearly  all  barefooted,  clad  in  ragged 
regimentals,  and  carry  their  guns  like  so  much  "  cord- 
wood."  Once  in  a  while  one  of  the  numerous  generals 
comes  around  and  shouts  *'  Attention !  "  when  such  of  the 
soldiers  as  are  within  hearing  shuffle  up  in  an  irregular 
line,  dragging  their  guns  behind,  and  go  through  what 
they  fondly  believe  is  a  drill,  as  prescribed  by  great  tac- 
ticians. Then,  this  over,  they  lounge  back  again  to  their 
favorite  pastime  of  drawing  circles  in  the  sand  with  their 
toes,  or  shooting  craps. 

When  off  duty,  the  Haitian  soldier  sometimes  puts  in 
his  time  begging  from  passersby  on  the  streets,  pleading 
as  an  excuse  that  his  pay  is  in  arrears  and  he  will  have 
to  wait  till  the  next  revolution  for  a  chance  to  get  even. 
As  this  is  generally  the  truth,  or  at  all  events  quite  a 
reasonable  assumption,  the  soldier  sometimes  does  very 
well  by  waylaying  people  on  the  street  corners  and  solicit- 
ing from  door  to  door. 

English,  French,  and  American  steamers  touch  in  at 
all  ports  on  Haiti's  coast,  and  communication  is  frequent 
between  Port  au  Prince  and  Cape  Haitien,  the  northern 
capital.  On  the  way,  the  beautiful  island  of  Gonaive,  in 
the  Gulf  of  Leogane,  is  passed,  and  at  the  extreme 
northwest  of  the  main  island  lies  Mole  San  Nicolas,  a 
land-locked,  natural  harbor,  of  such  strategical  impor- 
tance that  the  United  States  would  like  to  possess  it  as  a 
naval  station. 

Cape  Haitien  is  as  finely  situated  as  the  Port,  having 
a  grand  background  of  mountains  and  forest.  Its  great 
structures  erected  by  the  French  of  the  eighteenth  century 


THE  BLACK  AND  BROWN  REPUBLICS    157 

are  shapeless  heaps  of  brick  and  stone,  while  the  foun- 
tains they  provided  are  choked,  the  aqueducts  they  con- 
structed in  ruins,  and  the  gardens  they  laid  out  gone  to 
decay.  There  is  no  good  hotel  in  the  place,  nor  a  public, 
scarcely  a  private,  convenience  of  any  sort;  the  gutters 
are  filled  with  filth,  the  air  tainted  with  pestilential 
emanations. 

Yet,  here  at  Cape  Haitien,  great  historic  events  have 
taken  place;  here  Leclerc  and  thirty  thousand  of  his 
men  died  of  yellow  fever ;  here  the  white  men  were  driven 
by  the  blacks  into  the  sea ;  here  liberty  was  proclaimed 
to  Haiti,  and  here  lived  the  black  kings  who  made  laws 
and  committed  massacres  unchecked.  Out  beyond  the 
reefs  that  protect  the  harbor  from  the  sea,  the  flagship  of 
Columbus,  the  ''  Santa  Maria,"  was  wrecked,  on  Christ- 
mas eve,  1492,  and  over  on  the  shore  at  Guarico  the 
wreckage  was  collected  and  the  first  fort  in  America 
erected  by  Europeans. 

Two  hours'  ride  from  the  Cape  are  the  ruins  of  Sans 
Souci,  the  beautiful  palace,  in  a  more  beautiful  valley, 
built  by  commands  of  Christophe,  the  great  Black  King, 
in  the  early  years  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Sans  Souci 
is  situated  in  the  hills  above  the  lovely  vale  of  Millot,  with 
a  background  of  tropical  forest  and  a  foreground 
sprinkled  with  palms  and  the  huts  of  simple  cultivators. 
Roofless  ruins  are  the  only  remains  of  the  palace,  and  a 
wilderness  of  tropical  plants  of  the  extensive  gardens  of 
Christophe's  time. 

Two  hours  further  back  in  the  hills  stands  the  stu- 
pendous castle-fortress  erected  by  the  king  as  a  retreat 
when  the  French  should  come  to  avenge  his  massacres. 
They  never  came,  having  had  enough  of  Haiti ;  but  there 
Christophe  immured  himself,  within  walls  twenty  feet  in 


158        OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

thickness  and  a  hundred  in  height,  in  the  long  galleries 
and  on  the  parapets  mounting  more  than  three  hundred 
cannon,  most  of  which  may  be  seen  to-day.  Here,  at  last, 
died  the  great  Black  King,  self-slaughtered  by  a  silver 
bullet  driven  into  his  brain.  The  chamber  in  which  he 
killed  himself  is  shown,  also  his  treasury,  where  he  is 
said  to  have  accumulated  thirty  million  dollars. 

La  Ferriere,  as  the  fortress  is  called,  stands  upon  the 
truncate  crest  of  a  steep-sided  mountain,  in  the  midst  of 
wild  forest,  yet  can  be  seen  from  the  Cape,  from  a  vessel's 
deck  in  the  bay,  one  of  the  grandest,  strangest,  most 
fascinating  of  the  New  World's  works  in  stone  and 
mortar.  It  is  a  monument  of  the  Haitian  civilization  at 
its  best;  it  will  never  be  duplicated. 

Near  the  coast,  at  the  Cape,  the  ruins  are  shown  of  a 
buccaneer  stronghold ;  but  the  real  rendezvous  of  the  sea- 
rovers  was  at  Tortuga,  the  desolate  island  across  channel, 
five  miles  from  Port  de  Paix.  Here  such  worthies  of  the 
buccaneer  profession  as  Lollonois,  Mansveldt,  Morgan, 
and  other  crime-stained  cut-throats  made  their  head- 
quarters during  many  years,  in  the  last  half  of  the  seven- 
teenth century.  The  island,  with  its  pricele:,^  nemories 
of  Columbus  and  the  buccaneers,  belongs  to  Haiti,  and 
has  few,  if  any,  permanent  inhabitants.  These  few  live 
in  huts  on  the  sands  and  spend  their  time  in  fishing, 
turtling,  and  searching  for  the  pirates'  treasures,  said  to 
be  concealed  in  the  caves. 

It  was  in  the  guise  of  privateers,  and  then  as  filibiis- 
teros,  or  buccaneers,  that  the  alien  invaders  of  the 
Caribbean  Sea  first  worried  the  Spaniards,  and  in  1530 
one  of  their  great  Dons  stirred  up  a  veritable  hornet's 
nest  when  he  drove  the  French  and  English  buccaneers 
from  the  Island  gf  Saint  Kitts.     For,  deprived  of  their 


THE  BLACK  AND  BROWN  REPUBLICS    159 

possessions  there,  their  plantations  and  fishing  privileges, 
they  turned  pirates  and  made  a  rendezvous  at  Tortuga, 
off  the  north  coast  of  Haiti.  Some  of  them,  mainly  of 
French  extraction,  settled  in  the  larger  island,  where  they 
led  a  semi-savage  existence,  hunting  the  wild  cattle  which, 
sprung  from  Spanish  stock,  roamed  the  fields  and  forests 
by  the  thousand. 

These,  in  fact,  were  the  original  buccaneers,  the  name 
itself  being  derived  from  their  practicing  of  "boucan- 
ning,"  or  smoking,  the  flesh  of  the  wild  cattle,  after  the 
manner  of  the  Carib  Indians,  over  an  open  fire  of  sticks 
and  leaves.  They  were  in  partnership  with  the  Ulihusteros 
proper,  who  derived  their  supplies  from  them,  and  divided 
with  them  their  Spanish  spoils.  Many  a  treasure-laden 
galleon,  floundering  through  the  Windward  Passage 
between  Cuba  and  Haiti,  was  captured  by  these  buc- 
caneers, who  generally  took  their  treasures  to  Tortuga, 
where  they  held  high  revel  over  their  ill-gotten  wealth. 

The  buccaneers  lasted  for  quite  half  a  century,  the  last 
great  haul  they  made  being  at  the  sack  of  Panama,  1671, 
when  Morgan  (afterwards  Sir  Henry,  and  governor  of 
Jamaica),  secured  enough  to  enable  him  to  settle  down 
to  a  respectable  mode  of  life.  Something  more  than  a 
quarter-century  later,  or  at  the  Peace  of  Ryswick,  1697, 
the  French  were  confirmed  in  possession  of  the  third  of 
the  island,  now  known  as  Haiti,  although  the  boundary 
line  between  French  and  Spanish  territory  was  not  actu- 
ally delimited  until  about  the  middle  of  the  next  century. 

This  boundary  has  often  been  crossed,  by  one  party  or 
the  other ;  but  not  in  recent  times ;  and  is  at  present  re- 
spected by  both  the  Haitians  and  Dominicans.  The 
wonder  is  that,  during  the  frequent  "  revolutions  "  of  the 
century  past,  the  respective  territories  have  not  been  more 


i6o        OUR  WEST   INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

frequently  invaded  and  the  island  devastated  by  interne- 
cine slaughter.  The  reason  for  this  forbearance  may  be 
shown  in  a  study  of  conditions  prevailing  there. 

There  is  no  doubt  as  to  the  courage  of  these  Haitian- 
Dominicans,  since,  so  far  as  their  white  ancestry  is  con- 
cerned— although  it  may  now  be  considered,  perhaps,  as 
a  negligible  factor — we  have  on  one  side  the  remote 
descendants  of  the  fierce  buccaneers,  and  on  the  other  the 
equally  remote  descendants  of  valiant  conquistadores. 

This  process  of  elimination  began  when  the  French 
colonists  were  "  expelled "  (to  make  use  of  Minister 
Leger's  innocuous  euphemism)  from  the  country  about 
a  century  ago,  and  is  still  going  on.  That  those  white 
colonists  were  "  expelled  "  by  the  guillotine  route, — at 
least,  beheaded, — burnt  alive,  and  sawn  asunder,  is  neither 
here  nor  there.  If  the  question  were  raised,  the  Haitians 
would  doubtless  tell  you  that  their  revolutionary  ancestors 
acquired  the  custom  from  their  masters,  and  merely  gave 
them  a  dose  of  their  own  medicine.  At  any  rate  it  was 
effective,  for  not  one  of  them  has  ever  returned  to  plague 
the  Haitians  by  their  presence  in  the  flesh.  What  they 
did  to  Dessalines,  Christophe,  and  others  whom  the  white 
people  called  tyrants  and  monsters,  and  the  blacks  re- 
garded as  heroes,  has  not  been  recorded.  But  it  is  certain 
that  Christophe,  the  great  Black  King,  committed  suicide 
by  shooting  himself  in  the  head  with  a  silver  bullet,  and 
that  tradition  relates  he  was  moved  thereto  by  the  spooks 
he  saw,  mainly  of  the  white  variety,  in  his  magnificent 
palace  of  Sans  Souci. 

The  rare  perspicacity  shown  by  the  Haitians,  in  not 
only  expelling  the  white  man  from  their  republic,  but  in 
passing  laws  which  forbid  him  to  acquire  any  realty 
whatever, — except  he  be  married  to  a  black  woman, — has 


THE  BLACK  AND  BROWN  REPUBLICS    i6i 

not  been  evinced  by  the  Dominicans;  neither  have  they 
been  so  acutely  discriminative  in  their  slaughterings. 
They  have  not  withheld  their  hands  from  the  sword — or 
rather  from  the  pistol  and  machete — but  perhaps  they  may 
be  "  color  blind" ;  they  have  gone  on  with  their  blood- 
letting wholly  regardless  as  to  the  complexion  a  man  may 
have  when  in  life. 

When  the  late  lamented  Hyppolite  was  in  high  feather 
as  President  of  Haiti,  he,  one  day,  in  riding  down  a  side 
street  of  Port  au  Prince,  saw  a  poor  cobbler  sitting  on  a 
bench.  The  cobbler  also  saw  him,  and  though  Hyppolite 
was  in  a  general's  uniform  (and  "  generals  "  compose 
nine-tenths  of  the  "  army  "),  he  did  not  know  he  was  gaz- 
ing at  the  august  Executive.  But  he  instinctively  re- 
moved his  hat,  and  then  went  on  with  his  work.  It 
"  riled  "  the  President  to  see  a  man  working,  and  so  busy 
that  he  hadn't  time  to  rise  from  his  bench,  and  he  called 
two  of  his  soldiers.  "  Take  that  man  away  from  his 
work,"  he  commanded.     He  was  taken  away. 

"  Now,  take  him  off  and  shoot  him,"  was  the  next 
order.  This  was  done,  and  the  President's  affronted 
dignity  was  placated. 

This  is  a  tale  they  tell  in  Port  au  Prince — now  that 
Hyppolite  is  dead.  They  would  not  dare  tell  it  when  he 
was  alive,  though  it  may  be  just  as  true  now  as  it  ever 
was.  I  met  this  despot  of  a  decade  ago,  and 
was  much  impressed  with  his  dignified  bearing.  I  also 
met  and  was  very  friendly  with  another  "  late  lamented  " 
hero,  or  tyrant  (as  the  case  may  be).  General  Ulises 
Heureaux,  former  President  of  Santo  Domingo. 

Just  how  many  successors  they  have  had  since  is  a 
matter  of  no  consequence,  for  the  present  Executive  of  the 
republic  will  (in  fact,  he  must)  carry  on  the  policy  of  his 


i62       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

predecessor.  Haiti  is  getting  blacker  and  blacker,  if  it  be 
possible  (the  white  element  having  almost  arrived  at  the 
vanishing-point)  ;  and  if  Santo  Domingo  is  not  getting 
whiter,  it  is  not  the  fault  of  either  the  man  for  the  moment 
in  power, — nor  of  the  fiscal  and  other  agents  of  that 
country,  who  do  not  stint  the  "  whitewash  "  brush  at  all. 

It  is  when  the  one  country  or  the  other  desires  to  raise 
a  loan,  that  protests  begin  to  appear  in  the  press  anent  the 
"  mother  goose  "  stories  respecting  the  voodoo,  cannibal- 
ism, etc.,  etc.,  which  are  repeatedly  told  of  the  Haitians. 
In  other  words,  both  peoples  are  wholly  regardless  of 
what  the  white  man  thinks  or  does,  so  long  as  he  furnishes 
the  dinero  for  the  exploitation  of  their  beloved  country — 
by  and  for  the  natives,  of  course. 

That  each  country  is  rich  in  undeveloped  resources,  of 
gold,  copper,  to  some  extent  iron  and  coal,  and  with  vast 
treasure  in  its  cabinet  and  dye  woods,  everyone  who  has 
passed  through  their  wonderful  forests  can  testify.  The 
difficulties  in  the  way  of  exploiting  the  hidden  treasures 
of  both  republics  lie,  as  intimated,  in  the  peculiarities  of 
the  inhabitants.  In  no  country  of  the  world  will  greater 
hospitality  of  a  certain  sort  be  shown  than  in  Haiti  or 
Santo  Domingo;  in  no  vast  forest  region  will  the  lone 
traveler  (speaking  generally)  be  safer  than  in  the  interior 
of  that  beautiful  island. 

But  the  "  exception  "  might  appear  in  the  shape  of  a 
bullet,  or  of  a  machete  cut  from  some  fanatical  native 
resident  in  the  mountains  who  had  not  seen  a  white  man 
often  enough  to  know  him  from  a  rhinoceros,  and  who 
would  naturally  give  himself  the  benefit  of  the  doubt! 
As  to  the  propensity  (alleged)  of  the  Haitians  to  pilfer 
from  the  treasury,  it  may  be  remarked  that  it  is  their 
treasury,  and  so  long  as  those  who  actually  suflfer  do  not 


THE  BLACK  AND  BROWN  REPUBLICS    163 

complain,  why  should  the  casual  resident  or  new  arrival? 
As  an  old-timer  of  Port  au  Prince  once  remarked  to  the 
writer :  "  What's  the  difference  between  our  beloved 
President,  who  '  feather  his  nest,'  and  then  skeep  to 
Jamaica,  and  your  great  Monsieur  Crokair,  who  do  the 
same  and  skeep  to  Eengland?  Ha,  you  geeve  it  up,  eh? 
Well,  it  ees  this,  mon  cJier  ami  Our  beloved  President, 
he  steal  some  millions,  and  he  skeep — but  he  nevair  come 
back  again  no  more !  If  he  do  we  shoot  him  dead !  But 
as  for  your  Monsieur  Crokair — eef  he  come  back,  you  go 
to  meet  him  with  the  brass-band,  the  fireworks,  and  the 
*  glad  hand.'     Is  it  not  so  ?  " 

After  all,  why  should  it  concern  us  what  the  Haitians 
take  from  other  Haitians — peradventure  they  do  so? 
A  woman  belonging  in  the  alleged  voodoo  sect,  who  was 
indicted  for  devouring  her  own  children  at  a  cannibal 
ceremony  in  honor  of  the  "  great  green  serpent," 
naively  remarked :  "  Well,  what  if  I  did  ?  They  were 
my  children,  and  who  had  a  better  right  ?  " 

What  an  outspoken  editor  of  a  local  paper,  the  Gazette 
du  Peuple,  wrote  more  than  twenty  years  ago  applies  to 
the  condition  of  affairs  in  Haiti  to-day :  "  For  sixty- 
eight  years,  or  from  the  date  of  our  national  existence, 
what  have  we  done  ?  Nothing,  or  almost  nothing.  All  our 
constitutions  are  defective,  all  our  laws  are  incomplete, 
our  customs  badly  administered,  our  navy  is  detestable, 
our  police  ill-organized,  our  army  in  a  pitiable  state,  our 
finances  rotten  to  the  base,  the  legislative  power  is  not 
understood  and  never  will  be,  the  primary  elections  are 
neglected,  and  our  people  do  not  feel  their  importance. 
Nearly  all  our  public  edifices  are  in  ruins ;  the  public  in- 
struction is  almost  entirely  abandoned." 


X 

HAITI,  THE  "HOME  OF  THE  VOODOO** 

Aboriginal  name  of  the  island  —  Altitudes  of  its  mountains  — 
Description  by  an  old  writer  —  A  country  to  be  avoided  — 
The  Black  Republic,  according  to  Saint  John  —  Where  Voo- 
dooism  flourishes  and  cannibalism  is  said  to  be  practiced  — 
Land  of  the  loup-garou  — The  "  goat  without  horns  "  —  An 
American  botanist  on  Haiti  —  Toussaint  I'Ouverture  not  now 
revered  in  Haiti  as  of  old  —  Because  he  is  a  colored  man,  not 
black  —  Tribes  from  which  the  Haitian  negroes  descended  — 
The  basis  of  their  language  the  Congo  tongue  —  the  family 
that  introduced  the  serpent  worship  —  When  the  first  slaves 
were  taken  to  Haiti-Santo  Domingo  —  A  brief  revolutionary 
chronicle  —  When  the  Haitians  expelled  the  French  with 
"Yellow  Jack"  to  aid  them  —  Their  policy  of  isolation  — 
Where  the  white  man  is  discredited ;  though  the  black 
female  sometimes  marries  him  —  How  the  aristocracy  has 
suffered  —  Haitian  revolutions  are  "  family  affairs,"  and  the 
whites  must  not  intrude  —  But  they  sometimes  are  slain  by 
stray  bullets  —  A  list  of  Haiti's  various  rulers  —  Some  of 
them  served  out  their  terms  —  Nineteen  rulers,  including  one 
"  king,"  one  "  emperor,"  and  seventeen  despots. 

THE  aboriginal  name  of  the  island,  signifying  the 
high,  or  mountainous  country,  describes  it  in 
a  single  word.  The  island  of  Hispaniola,  or 
Haiti-Santo  Domingo,  contains  28,250  square  miles,  of 
which  10,200  square  miles,  or  a  little  more  than  one- 
third,  is  comprised  in  the  Haitian  portion.  Not  only 
is  this  the  most  mountainous  island  of  the  West  Indies, 
but  it  can  boast  the  highest  peaks  in  the  Antilles,  for  the 
dominating  peak  of  the  Cibao,  or  central  cordillera,  Monte 
Tina,  is  estimated  to  be  over  11,000  feet  in  altitude,  ex- 

164 


HAITI,    "HOME    OF   THE    VOODOO"    165 

ceeding  Turquino  of  Cuba  and  the  Blue  Mountain  Peak 
of  Jamaica  by  more  than  3000  feet. 

Given,  then,  a  congeries  of  cloud-piercing  mountains 
surrounded  by  a  tropical  sea,  with  ever-blowing  winds 
beating  against  their  peaks  and  slopes,  the  moisture  con- 
densed from  which  furnishes  nourishment  for  forests  of 
perennial  verdure,  with  deep  ravines  and  smiling  valleys, 
through  which  course  roaring  rivers,  rippling  streams, 
and  you  have  the  essentials  for  what  Haiti  veritably  is,  a 
natural  paradise. 

Says  an  English  gentleman  of  high  attainments,  one 
who  resided  in  Haiti  in  official  capacity  for  more  than 
twenty  years :  "  I  have  traveled  in  almost  every  quarter  of 
the  globe,  and  I  may  say  that,  taken  as  a  whole,  there  is 
no  finer  island  than  that  of  Santo  Domingo-Haiti.  No 
country  possesses  greater  capabilities,  or  a  better  geo- 
graphical position,  more  variety  of  soil,  of  climate,  and  of 
production,  with  magnificent  scenery  of  every  descrip- 
tion, and  hillsides  where  the  pleasantest  of  health-resorts 
might  be  established." 

"  And  yet,"  he  goes  on  to  say,  *'  it  is  now  the  country  to 
be  most  avoided,  ruined  as  it  is  by  a  succession  of  self- 
seeking  politicians,  without  honesty  or  patriotism,  content 
to  let  the  people  sink  to  the  condition  of  an  African  tribe, 
that  their  own  selfish  passions  may  be  gratified." 

In  other  words,  the  gifts  of  nature  have  not  been  appre- 
ciated as  they  should  have  been,  and  there  seems  to  have 
been  a  perversion  of  the  divine  intent :  that  the  best  gifts 
of  God  should  go  to  those  best  capable  of  appreciating 
them.  Here  in  Haiti  we  have  an  Eden,  no  doubt;  but 
also  a  serpent,  collectively  represented  by  the  black  popu- 
lation, and  specifically  by  the  African  sorcery  of  the 
Voodoo,  or  Vaudoux. 


i66       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

That  is,  the  gentleman  just  quoted  would  have  it  appear 
so,  for  he  is  no  other  than  Sir  Spencer  Saint  John,  one- 
time Her  Britannic  Majesty's  minister  resident  at  Port  au 
Prince,  and  whose  book,  ''  The  Black  Republic,"  contains 
a  scathing  arraignment  of  the  Haitians,  together  with 
details  of  the  revolting  practices  of  the  Vaudoux  and  the 
cannibals,  who  reside  in  the  most  beautiful  country  that 
America  can  boast.  It  was  published  fifteen  years  ago, 
yet  the  circumstantial  accounts  narrated  in  this  book  of 
horrors  have  never  been  refuted.  In  fact,  no  one  who 
has  visited  Haiti  and  remained  there  any  length  of  time 
can  escape  the  conviction  that  voodooism,  and  occasion- 
ally cannibalism,  are  still  practiced  by  the  people  living  in 
districts  remote  from  the  coast  and  important  centers  of 
population. 

This  is  not  saying  that  all,  nor  any  large  porportion,  of 
the  Haitians,  follow  the  precepts  of  the  sorcerers,  the 
serpent-worshipers;  but  that  they  have  permeated  the 
population  in  every  direction.  The  writer  has  had  occa- 
sion to  verify  these  accounts  of  Saint  John  (not  the 
"  Divine,"  if  you  please, — in  Haiti)  in  conversation  with 
respectable  residents  of  Port  au  Prince  and  Cape  Haitien. 
few  of  whom  had  the  hardihood  to  deny  the  existence  of 
the  evils  described. 

There  is  too  deep  a  belief  in  the  almost  preternatural 
power  of  the  papa-lots  and  fnama^t-lois  (high  priest  and 
priestess  of  the  Vaudoux),  and  the  dread  of  the  terrible 
loup-garou — the  human  hyena  that  kidnaps  children, 
buries  them  alive,  and  then  resurrects  them  for  the  sacri- 
fices— is  too  pervasive  and  real,  to  pennit  of  denial  by 
those  who  have  to  live  in  Haiti  and  endure  the  evils  they 
cannot  remedy. 

The  Haitians  will  tell  you  that  it  is  none  of  your  busi- 


r 

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HAITI,    "HOME    OF    THE    VOODOO'^    167 

ness,  and  that,  at  all  events,  you  should  not  try  to  attract 
attention  to  the  bad  qualities  of  a  few,  to  the  exclusion  of 
their  innumerable  virtues.  Perhaps  this  is  true,  for  that 
the  natives  of  Haiti  have  many  virtues,  and  among  them 
those  of  hospitality  and  generosity,  no  one  who  has  lived 
among  them  will  deny.  So,  let  us  content  ourselves  with 
merely  mentioning  the  fact  that  the  Voodoo  does  exist  in 
the  island,  that  it  is  probably  a  survival  of  African  fetich- 
ism,  and  that  the  worship  of  the  serpent  (the  great  green, 
harmless  snake  of  the  island)  does  not  necessarily  imply 
a  belief  in  cannibalism.  Now  and  then,  it  is  affirmed,  in 
the  frenzy  of  the  serpent  dance,  the  worshipers  will  be 
content  with  nothing  less  than  the  sacrifice  of  the  *'  goat 
without  horns,"  or  in  other  words,  a  living  child ;  but  as 
it  is  usually  a  colored  or  negro  child,  *'  furnished  for  the 
occasion  "  by  some  one  of  the  revelers,  the  white  person 
has  really  no  reason  for  interference — so  the  Haitians 
say. 

This  is,  perhaps,  an  extreme  expression  of  their  resent- 
ment at  the  intrusion  of  white  people  into  their  affairs. 
They  cannot  understand,  inasmuch  as  they  themselves 
remain  at  home  and  attend  to  their  own  affairs,  why  the 
white  man,  or  woman,  should  take  a  particular  interest  in 
their  home  life  and  customs. 

The  Haitians,  ''  according  to  St.  John,"  are  quite  as 
black  as  painted ;  and  yet  he  lived  for  years  among  them, 
and  at  last  escaped  with  his  life,  to  malign  and  traduce 
them — according  to  the  Haitians.  He  was  there  in  a 
diplomatic  capacity,  and  presumably  was  not  given  to 
wandering  in  the  forests  looking  for  spooks.  Hear,  then, 
the  testimony  of  an  American  botanist,  who  visited  the 
island  in  1903,  and  who  did  go  into  the  deep  woods  and 
live  among  the  primitive  people  there. 


i68       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

"  Haiti,'*  he  says,  "  is  a  land  of  vast  mountain  chains, 
rising  8000  feet  in  the  air,  overlapping  and  entangling 
each  other  in  inextricable  confusion ;  unpierced  by  the 
rail,  threaded  only  by  bridle  paths ;  clothed  with  tremen- 
dous tropical  forests,  in  which  splendid  hard-wood  trees, 
almost  worth  their  weight  in  gold  in  the  markets  of  the 
world,  fall  and  die  of  old  age,  untouched  by  the  ax. 

"  Throughout  these  mountains  are  little  palm-leaf  huts, 
perched  on  some  overhanging  cliff,  or  beside  some  deep 
ravine,  the  home  of  negro  peasants,  cultivating  their 
banana  patches  and  living  almost  as  primitive  a  life  as 
their  race  sustains  in  the  heart  of  Africa.  It  is  a  land  of 
peaks,  and  these  gigantic  needles,  clear  in  the  morning 
sun,  or  rising  like  misty  islands  from  the  rolling  sea  of 
afternoon  clouds,  make  an  endless  vista  of  wild  and  mag- 
nificent mountain  scenery.  It  is  a  land  of  gold  and  silver, 
copper,  iron,  and  coal,  of  which  the  surface  is  hardly 
scratched ;  a  land  of  almost  infinite  possibilities,  which  is 
not,  and  never  can  be,  developed  under  the  present  condi- 
tions ;  a  land  ruled  by  black  men — not  by  mulattos,  but  by 
black  men  alone. 

'"'  The  black  intends  to  keep  his  country  for  himself.  In 
the  capital.  Port  au  Prince,  this  black  man,  when  high  in 
power,  will  generally  be  found  a  cultivated,  polished, 
French  negro,  educated  in  Paris  and  a  frequent  visitor  to 
that  city,  living  in  a  pleasant  tropical  bungalow,  driving 
a  handsome  turnout,  formally  calling  on  the  distinguished 
white  stranger,  and  inviting  him  to  dinner.  And,  back  in 
the  mountains  this  black  man,  perfectly  illiterate,  still  con- 
ducts his  Voodoo  ceremonies,  and  makes  human  sacrifices. 
It  is  off  in  these  remote  regions  that  the  Voodoo  prac- 
tices are  kept  up.  Of  course,  I  did  not  see  them  ;  no  white 
man  ever  does.     But  everyone  in  the  island  admits  that 


HAITI,    "HOME    OF    THE    VOODOO"    169 

they  continue,  and  with  human  sacrifice,  in  spite  of  the 
Government's  efiforts  to  stop  them." 

"  Of  course  I  did  not  see  them ;"  the  Haitian  points  tri- 
umphantly to  that  admission,  and  demands  that  the  white 
man  produce  proof  of  guilt  on  the  part  of  the  black  man. 
But,  though  he  himself  saw  no  human  sacrifices,  Mr.  St. 
John  adduces  proofs  enough  in  his  pages,  citing  from 
local  newspapers,  and  giving  the  evidence  of  at  least  one 
priest,  who  saw  a  child  strung  up  by  its  feet,  and  its  throat 
cut,  when  the  "  goat  without  horns  "  was  demanded  as  a 
sacrifice. 

Let  us  turn,  however,  to  the  more  pleasing  features  of 
life  in  Haiti,  and  so  far  as  possible  ignore  the  presence  of 
the  black  man  from  Africa,  whose  presence  in  this  para- 
dise is  at  best  an  accidental  intrusion.  He  was  brought 
here  by  the  white  man,  as  a  slave ;  and,  by  a  sort  of  poetic 
justice,  it  was  in  this  island  of  Santo  Domingo,  where 
slavery  was  first  introduced  into  America,  that  it  was  also 
first  abolished.  The  Haitian  negro,  also,  has  the  credit 
of  having  been  instrumental  in  abolishing  it,  when  he  be- 
came numerous  enough,  and  when  the  events  of  the 
French  revolution  made  it  possible  to  form  the  desirable 
conjunction.  Toussaint  I'Ouverture  was  Haiti's  George 
Washington ;  but  as  he  was  a  colored  man,  in  whose  veins 
ran  the  blood  of  the  hated  '*  hlanc,"  he  is  not  held  in  so 
high  esteem  as  the  great  Christophe,  or  as  Dessalines, 
(1804-1820),  the  latter  of  which  precious  pair  of  barbar- 
ians said  in  his  proclamation  of  1804:  "  Your  friends,  vic- 
tims of  the  French — why  delay  to  appease  their  manes? 
What — the  ashes  of  your  relations  in  the  grave,  and  you 
have  not  avenged  them  ?  " 

That  proclamation  was  issued  in  the  year  1804,  January 
first  of  which  year  is  the  date  of  the  Haitian  Independ- 


T70       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

ence,  one  hundred  years  ago.  Twelve  years  previously 
both  whites  and  blacks  had  vied  with  each  other  in  com- 
mitting atrocities  only  paralleled  by  those  then  transpiring 
in  France,  and  which  were  the  inciting  causes  in  Haiti. 
Both  whites  and  blacks  broke  their  prisoners  on  the  wheel ; 
a  white  planter  was  forced  to  eat  his  wife's  flesh,  after  she 
had  been  killed ;  and  the  ears  of  prominent  white  planters 
were  worn  by  the  blacks  as  cockades ! 

But,  as  already  mentioned,  the  blacks  were  apt  pupils 
in  the  school  of  atrocity.  Originally  descended  from 
.some  of  the  most  savage  races  or  families  of  Africa, 
some  thirty  in  number,  they  furnished  the  proper  stock 
for  the  engrafting  of  scions  of  the  white  man's  deviltries. 
There  were  Congos,  Senegals,  Yolofs,  Foulahs,  Bam- 
baras,  Socos,  Sofos,  Fantins,  Popos,  Benins,  and  a  score 
of  other  families  having  a  common  racial  origin,  nearly 
all  from  the  west  coast  of  the  ''  Dark  Continent."  The 
basis  of  their  language  as  spoken  now  in  the  Creole  dia- 
lect, or  patois,  is  the  Congo  tongue ;  but  the  language  of 
the  Vaudoux  is  Ardra,  to  which  family  belongs  the  honor 
of  having  introduced  the  serpent  worship  into  the  island. 
While  French  (and  Parisian  French,  at  that)  is  spoken 
by  the  better  classes,  among  the  common  people  a  Creole 
jargon  is  used,  an  abbreviated  form  of  French,  in  which 
"  conjunctions  and  pronouns  are  mercilessly  sacrificed." 

Slavery  was  introduced  into  the  Santo  Domingo,  or 
Spanish,  portion  of  the  island  in  1506,  and  into  Haiti 
in  the  seventeenth  century.  The  buccaneers  all  had 
slaves — all  who  could  afford  them — and  as  early  as  1681 
there  is  a  record  of  a  cargo  of  African  slaves  being  sold 
for  seven  hundred  pounds  of  sugar  each,  "  sucking 
infants  to  go  with  the  mother,  without  account." 

After  Dessalines  and  Christophe  had  aped  royalty  a 


HAITI,    ''HOME    OF    THE    VOODOO"    171 

a  few  years,  and  the  island  had  come  under  Petion,  the 
capital  of  the  mulatto  moiety  of  the  republic  was  virtually 
at  Port  au  Prince  for  several  years,  where  it  actually  is 
at  the  present  time.  General  Boyer,  whose  father  was  a 
mulatto  tailor  and  his  mother  a  Congo  negress,  succeeded 
Petion  as  dictator,  and  under  him  the  two  halves  of  Haiti 
were  united  into  one  government.  His  was  the  longest 
reign  the  distracted  country  had  experienced,  lasting 
twenty-three  years. 

After  Boyer  came  the  deluge  of  aspirants  to  the  throne 
or  presidential  chair — call  it  what  you  will — which  has 
been  the  curse  of  Haiti  to  the  present  time.  The  blacks 
were  royalists  by  profession,  even  during  the  time  of  the 
directory  and  the  revolution  in  France,  so  that  the  buf- 
foonery of  Dessalines  and  Christophe,  when  they  pro- 
claimed themselves  respectively  as  emperor  and  king, 
was  quite  acceptable  to  the  majority  of  their  subjects.  At 
heart  the  Haitians  are  royalists  to-day ;  that  is,  they  pre- 
fer the  pomp  and  ceremonials  of  courts  to  the  plain  sim- 
plicity of  a  republic.  They  like  show  and  glitter,  frills 
and  furbelows,  gold  lace  and  epaulets,  cocked  hats  and 
cock's  feathers,  and  it  was  a  sad  day  for  the  masses  when 
the  grand  marshal,  grand  almoner,  master  of  ceremonials, 
Knights  of  Saint  Henry,  ''  princes  of  the  blood,"  dukes, 
counts,  barons,  chevaliers,  etc.,  were  abolished.  But  for 
their  inclination  to  reduce  everybody  and  everything  to 
the  dead  level  of  barbarism,  they  would  take  to  a  re- 
establishment  of  royalty  as  easily  as  a  duck  to  water. 

This  was  proved  fifty-five  years  ago  when  Soulouque, 
an  illiterate  and  superstitious  black,  declared  himself 
"  emperor,"  under  the  title  of  ''  Faustin  I.,"  and  revived 
the  old  ''  nobility  "  of  the  Marmalades  and  Limonades. 
But  after  the  novelty  had  passed  the  black  baby  cried  for  a 


172       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

new  toy,  and  as  their  emperor  and  his  court  had  become 
the  laughing  stock  of  the  civiUzed  world,  even  obtuse  and 
impervious  Haiti  was  forced  to  repudiate  him.  A  revolt 
was  successfully  conducted  by  one  Geffrard,  who  not 
many  years  after  followed  Soulouque  to  Jamaica,  an  exile, 
both  having,  it  was  reported,  plundered  the  governmen': 
of  millions.  Geffrard  was  a  mulatto,  but  his  successor, 
Salnave,  was  a  black  soldier,  who,  "  elected  "  President 
in  1867,  was  driven  from  power  and  shot  in  his  own 
doorway  by  orders  of  his  successful  rival,  Saget. 

And  so  they  went,  blacks  and  mulattos  alternating, 
few  of  Haiti's  "  presidents  "  ever  completing  their  terms 
of  office.  Jamaica  became  the  Mecca  for  ex-presidents 
of  Haiti,  and  there  are  several  there  now,  who  only  saved 
their  black  skins  by  suddenly  crossing  the  channel  and 
putting  themselves  under  the  folds  of  the  British  flag. 

All  the  settlers  of  French  extraction  having  been  mur- 
dered, all  their  property  not  claimed  by  their  illegitimate 
children  was  absorbed  by  the  state,  and  as  all  the  country 
mansions  had  been  destroyed,  they  can  be  traced  to-day 
only  by  their  ruins.* 

The  sugar  plantations  had  been  destroyed,  and  have 
never  been  restored ;  but  the  coffee  trees  planted  by  the 
French,  and  seedlings  from  them,  still  flourish,  and  it  is 
chiefly   upon   their   products   that   the   Haitians   subsist. 

*  "  What  was  the  condition  of  the  Haitian  negroes  a  hundred 
years  ago?  They  were  slaves.  They  were  treated  like  beasts. 
They  were  compelled  to  work  like  machines  in  the  field.  They 
could  not  read.  They  could  not  write.  They  were  not  even 
good  artisans,  because  they  were  not  allowed  to  learn  anything. 
The  sanctity  of  their  homes  was  held  at  naught  and  profaned ; 
their  daughters,  their  wives,  were  mere  pastime  for  their  white 
masters.  Their  degradation  waa  com^UtG."  ^  Minister  /.  N. 
Leger  in  the  North  American  Rcvi^w^ 


HAITI,    "HOME    OF    THE    VOODOO"    173 

Even  so  early  as  1805  the  crop  of  the  year  exceeded 
30,000,000  pounds,  or  enough  to  load  fifty  large  ships. 
Add  to  the  coffee  crop  the  logwood  and  mahogany,  the 
natural  fruits  and  vegetables,  the  fish  of  the  rivers  and  the 
sea,  and  take  into  account  the  glorious  climate,  that  re- 
quires neither  clothes  nor  fuel  for  the  dwellers  there,  and 
we  have  some  of  the  requirements  for  a  lazy  man's  ely- 
sium. 

Some  labor  is  necessary,  of  course,  to  cut  logwood  and 
mahogany,  and  it  requires  a  little  exertion  to  pick  up  the 
coffee  berries ;  but  other  than  this  the  Haitians  of  the  in- 
terior districts  exert  themselves  hardly  at  all.  The  black 
peasantry  of  the  hills  bring  down  the  produce  of  the  old 
plantations,  where  it  is  taken  in  hand  by  the  politicians 
who  control  the  customs,  and,  needless  to  say,  the  bulk 
of  the  proceeds  is  appropriated.  As  the  only  revenue  is 
derived  from  the  customs  at  the  ports,  the  most  desirable 
governmental  positions  are,  of  course,  those  that  enable 
their  occupants  to  get  their  hands  on  the  exports  and  im- 
ports. There  is  a  Haitian  proverb  that  it  is  no  crime  to 
steal  from  the  state.  "  Prendre  V argent  de  I'etat  ce  n'est 
pas  vole."  The  collector  of  the  port  ''  rules  the  roost,"  un- 
til he  is  removed,  or  ''  promoted,"  when  another  is  given 
a  chance  to  dip  into  the  treasury.  No  ruler  has  arisen 
since  the  emancipation  having  the  interests  of  the  people 
really  at  heart ;  no  great  public  work  has  ever  been  under- 
taken for  the  improvement  of  the  country ;  the  only  struc- 
tures of  importance,  with  very  few  exceptions,  are  those 
left  by  the  French,  and  these  are,  most  of  them,  in  ruins. 
Buildings  destroyed  by  fire  or  earthquake  are  never  re- 
placed, and  the  nearest  approach  to  rebuilding  is  seen  in 
the  slab  shanty  leaning  against  the  walls  of  some  large 
structure  that  has  been  demolished. 


174       OUR  WEST   INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

We  have  seen  who  were  the  ancestors  of  the  people  at 
present  dominant  in  Haiti,  who,  always  in  fear  of  their 
more  powerful  white  neighbors,  have  enacted  that  the 
pale-faces  shall  not  directly  acquire  any  real  estate  in  the 
country.  Even  if  they  marry  Haitian  women  they  cannot 
inherit  any  landed  property,  but  only  the  proceeds  of  it 
when- sold  at  auction. 

''  They  can  be  merchants,  artists,  mechanics,  professors, 
teachers,  clerks,  and  engineers,"  says  a  native  writer ; 
"  but  are  barred  from  the  bench  and  the  bar,  military 
honors,  and  civil  distinctions."  In  social  life,  however 
(the  Creole  goes  on  to  assure  them),  and  in  callings  for 
which  they  are  legally  qualified,  "  they  are  treated  with  all 
the  courtesy  and  regard  to  which  their  character  entitles 
them.  Exemplary  conduct  on  their  part  always  enables 
them  to  overcome  the  social  disadvantages  attaching  to 
their  unfortunate  color  " — or  rather,  lack  of  it ! 

In  short,  Haiti  is  the  one  country  in  the  world  vv^here  it 
is  discreditable  to  be  a  white  man.  Still,  it  is  confidently 
asserted,  the  colored  females  manifest  a  preference  for 
suitors  of  the  Caucasian  race,  notwithstanding  this  bar 
sinister  on  their  escutcheon,  and  will  marry  them  despite 
their  disabilities — always  provided,  of  course,  that  they 
have  money,  and  can  boast  respectable  parentage. 

The  aristocracy  of  the  island,  having  suffered  consider- 
ably from  the  weeding-out  process  so  ruthlessly  applied 
by  the  blacks,  cannot  muster  a  corporal's  guard,  at  pres- 
ent, the  times  having  sadly  changed  since  the  good  old 
days  of  King  Henri  and  the  Emperor  Faustin  I.,  when 
the  dukes  of  Marmalade  and  Limonade  were  flourishing. 
The  only  one  the  writer  was  ever  privileged  to  gaze  upon 
was  clad  in  faded  and  ragged  regimentals,  very  much 
out  at  the  elbows,  and  mounted  on  a  sorry  nag,  the  visible 


HAITI,    "HOME    OF    THE    VOODOO"    175 

ribs  of  which  he  vainly  prodded  with  enormous  spurs 
fixed  to  bare  and  bony  heels.  But  he  wore  a  tattered 
chapeau  with  a  rooster's  feathers  in  it,  and  his  ebony 
features  were  stamped  with  the  dignity  descended  from 
an  immemorial  ancestry ! 

It  may  be  true,  as  the  Haitians  assert,  that  their  frequent 
revolutions  are  strictly  family  affairs,  and  that  the  for- 
eigner is  perfectly  safe  provided  he  goes  into  hiding 
while  the  fighting  continues;  but  the  fact  remains  that 
very  few  foreigners  in  Haiti  ever  die  of  old  age !  In  a 
land  where  somebody  or  other  is  always  out  gunning  for 
somebody  else,  there  is  danger,  an  ever-present  danger, 
of  being  shot.  It  may  not  be  with  intention ;  but  therein 
the  real  danger  lies ;  for  no  Haitian  was  ever  known  to 
hit  what  he  fired  at — though  he  is  sure  to  hit  somebody, 
and  that  somebody  is  usually  the  *'  highly  respected  for- 
eigner !"  Even  an  execution  is  no  exception  to  the  rule, 
for  it  requires  whole  volleys  of  musketry  to  slay  one 
solitary  victim,  and  it  rarely  happens  that  he  does  not 
have  several  innocent  attendants  to  the  spirit  land,  slain 
by  bullets  that  went  astray. 

Of  Haiti's  nineteen  rulers,  including  a  "  king  "  and  an 
"  emperor,"  and  all  of  them  dictators  or  despots,  four, 
only,  completed  their  terms  of  office ;  two  died  in  office ; 
two  were  killed ;  one  committed  suicide ;  one  "  abdicated  " 
(under  compulsion)  ;  eight  were  exiled;  one  is  still  on 
probation.  These  facts  speak  for  themselves,  and  may 
account  for  the  reticence  of  the  Haitians  in  respect  to 
matters  political. 

1.  Dessalines,  killed  by  his  troops,  in  1806. 

2.  Petion,  died  in  office,  in  power  12  years,  1818. 

3.  Christophe,  committed  suicide  in  1820. 

4.  Boyer,  exiled,  after  2^  years  in  office,  1843. 


176        OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

5.  Herard  Riviere,  exiled,  after  one  year,  1844. 

6.  Guerrier,  died  in  office,  one  year,  1845. 

7.  Pierrot,  elected  1845,  abdicated  next  year. 

8.  Riche,  proclaimed  in  1846,  died  next  year. 

9.  Soulouque,  elected  1847;  "emperor,"   1849;  exiled 
1859. 

10.  Geffrard,  president  till  1867 ;  exiled. 

11.  Salnave,  president,  ousted  and  shot,  1870. 

12.  Nissage-Saget,  1870-74;  completed  his  term. 

13.  Domingue,    seized    government,     1874;    expelled, 
1876. 

14.  Boisrond-Canal,  1876;  expelled  from  Haiti,  1879. 

15.  Salomon,  1879-88;  died  in  exile. 

16.  Legitime,  1888,  one  year,  driven  out  and  exiled. 

17.  Hyppolite,  1889-96;  died  in  office.     Poisoned  (?). 

18.  Simon  Sam,  1896-1903;  filled  full  term  and  retired. 

19.  Nord  Alexis,  1903 ;  at  last  accounts  in  power. 


XI 

MISGOVERNED   SANTO  DOMINGO 

Richly  endowed  Santo  Domingo  —  How  the  Indians  were  mis- 
treated —  Santiago,  City  of  the  Caballeros  —  Railroads 
and  natural  highways  —  Columbus  and  the  chain  of  forts  he 
built  —  "Sons  of  Somebody"  subjected  to  African  ''Sons 
of  Nobody"  —  The  degradation  of  the  Dominicans  —  The 
late  President  Ulises  Heureaux,  called  by  his  people  "  Lilis  " 
—  The  despot  of  Santo  Domingo,  whose  victims  were  num- 
bered by  hundreds  —  A  diplomat,  a  linguist,  and  a  brute  — 
Assassinated  by  the  son  of  a  man  he  had  killed  —  His  unique 
personality  —  The  two  curses  of  the  Black  and  Brown  Re- 
publics —  African  inertia  and  atavism  —  Aspirants  for  the 
presidency  in  Sto.  Domingo  —  Condition  of  the  government 
to-day,  hopelessly  bankrupt  —  What  constitutes  a  "  revolu- 
tionist "  —  A  personal  view  of  "  Lilis  "  —  An  offer  to  loan 
the  bones  of  Columbus  for  a  consideration  —  What  the  con- 
sideration was  to  be  —  Official  document  in  proof  of  the 
assertion  that  the  offer  of  a  loan  was  made. 

IT  seems  an  anomaly  of  history  that  an  island  boast- 
ing the  oldest  city  on  American  soil,  and  among  the 
first  discovered  by  Columbus,  in  1492,  should  be 
the  least  known  of  the  West  Indies ;  yet  this  may 
be  said  of  Hispaniola  (or  Haiti-Santo  Domingo),  first 
settled  between  the  years  1493  and  1496,  and  since  occu- 
pied by  people  of  a  race  alien  to  its  aboriginal  inhabitants. 
These  latter  were  long  ago  exterminated,  though  at  the 
time  the  island  was  discovered  they  numbered  more  than 
a  million.  Their  blood  flows  in  the  veins  of  many  an 
islander,  but  mingled  with  that  of  the  conquerors,  and 

177 


178       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

also  merged  in  that  sanguineous  stream  which  tor  cen- 
turies followed  thitherward  from  Africa. 

It  is  not  Santo  Domingo's  fault  that  it  has  not  occupied 
a  more  prominent  position  in  American  affairs.  Richly 
endowed  by  nature,  with  the  most  delightful  climate 
imaginable,  with  a  vegetation  comprising  all  the  products 
of  the  tropics  and  semi-tropics;  streams  of  purest  water 
sparkling  in  the  sun;  hills  and  headlands  presenting  the 
most  extensive  and  magnificent  views  of  palm-covered 
plains  and  varied  forests;  mountains  (the  central  Cordil- 
leras) rising  to  the  clouds  and  containing  rich  deposits  of 
gold;  fine  harbors,  outlets  to  an  interior  country  of  sur- 
passing fertility ;  all  these  it  has.  Nature  has  done  much 
for  Santo  Domingo;  it  could  hardly  have  done  more; 
and  man,  also,  has  done  much — all  he  could,  in  fact — to 
pervert  the  evident  designs  of  a  beneficent  Providence. 

Yes," man  has  proved  recreant  to  the  trust  imposed  in 
this  instance.  Beginning  with  the  times  of  Columbus, 
everything  seems  to  have  missed  its  mark.  Apologists 
for  Columbus  may  tell  you  that  he  had  vast,  even  insuper- 
able difficulties  to  contend  with ;  moralists  may  animadvert 
upon  his  career,  as  an  object  lesson  of  what  should  have 
been  avoided ;  but  the  fact  remains  that  Santo  Domingo 
fared  badly  at  his  hands,  and  the  aborigines  fared  worse. 
To  paraphrase  that  couplet  anent  the  Pilgrim  Fathers : 

The  conqtiistadores  fell  on  their  knees ; 
Then  they  fell  on  the  aborigines. 

They  smote  them,  hip  and  thigh ;  and,  moreover,  they 
smote  off  their  heads  by  basketfuls,  it  being  a  common 
practice  for  those  noble  hidalgos  who  came  over  with  and 
shortly  after  Columbus  to  try  the  temper  of  their 
"  Toledos  "  upon  the  Indian  skull. 


MISGOVERNED    SANTO    DOMINGO     179 

"  It  Is  a  fine  morning,  let's  go  out  and  crack  a  skull," 
seems  to  have  been  the  customary  remark ;  at  all  events, 
the  historians  tell  us  that  the  beheading  of  Indians  was 
their  regular  matutinal  pastime. 

What  with  the  unrestrained  inclination  of  the  con- 
quistadores  to  decimate  the  aborigines,  and  the  severe 
tasks  they  imposed  upon  them  in  the  fields  and  mines,  the 
Indian  soon  became  a  negative,  then  an  exceedingly 
scarce,  commodity.  This  term  is  used  advisedly,  for  the 
poor  Indian  was  considered  as  something  less  than  the 
lower  animals  and  was  bought  and  sold,  as  the  produce 
of  the  land.  A  superficial  regard  was  paid  to  his  soul, 
perhaps,  inasmuch  as  the  missionaries  (and  among  them 
the  great  and  good  Las  Casas,  who  resided  in  the  island 
many  years)  entered  their  protests  regularly  and  called 
down  upon  the  Spaniards  the  vengeance  of  Heaven. 

Their  protests  did  not  appear  to  be  effectual,  however, 
for  the  exterminating  process  went  on;  the  system  of 
enconiiendas  was  carried  from  Santo  Domingo  to  Cuba, 
thence  to  Yucatan  and  Mexico ;  to  the  Spanish  Main  and 
Peru.  For  Cortes,  Pizarro,  Balboa,  and  many  other 
Spaniards  whose  names  are  now  secure  in  Fame's  temple, 
had  their  first  training  in  Santo  Domingo.  It  was  not 
only  the  colonizing  center  of  the  then  New  World,  but 
also  the  home  of  its  barbarities,  in  which  the  conquista- 
dores,  many  of  them,  first  fleshed  their  swords;  first 
spilled  the  blood  of  innocent,  inoffensive  Indians. 

If  one  would  know  how,  at  least  in  one  instance, 
nature's  best  intentions  have  miscarried,  he  should  visit 
the  city  of  Santiago  de  los  Caballeros,  in  Santo  Domingo. 
Situated  at  an  elevation  of  500  feet  above  the  sea,  on  a 
plateau  in  the  center  of  a  vast  valley,  bounded  on  the 
north  by  the  Monte  Cristi  range  of  mountains,  and  on 


i8o       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

the  south  by  the  Cordillera  of  the  Cibao,  it  possesses  a 
salubrious  climate  and  attractive  scenery.  The  bluff  upon 
which  it  was  built  is  washed  by  the  waters  of  the  Yaqui, 
called  by  Columbus  Rio  del  Oro,  or  River  of  Gold,  on 
account  of  the  precious  grains  he  found  in  its  sands.  The 
Yaqui  rises  in  the  southern  Cordilleras  and  flows  af  first 
northerly  toward  the  site  of  Santiago,  then  turns  north- 
westerly, running  all  the  way  through  a  valley  of  its  own 
name  to  the  Bay  of  Manzanillo,  where  it  meets  the  sea 
near  the  boundary  line  between  Santo  Domingo  and 
Haiti,  not  far  from  Monte  Cristi. 

From  the  Santiago  watershed  also  flow,  southeasterly, 
streams  which  unite  to  form  another  large  river,  the  Yuna, 
which  empties  into  the  Bay  of  Samana ;  thus  the  city  has 
natural  outlets  east  and  west,  and  is  the  distributing  cen- 
ter for  an  immense  region  rich  in  mineral  and  vegetable 
products.  It  is  situated  about  equi-distant,  lOO  miles, 
from  the  bays  of  Manzanillo  and  Samana,  and  from  its 
commanding  position  has  long  been  the  objective  point  of 
railroads  from  either  coast.  At  present  there  is  a  railroad 
from  the  roadstead  of  Sanchez,  in  the  bight  of  Samana,  to 
within  about  twenty  miles  of  Santiago,  the  inland  ter- 
minal being  at  Concepcion  de  la  Vega,  one  of  the  ancient 
settlements  of  the  island ;  and  another  connecting  Santiago 
with  Puerto  Plata. 

It  was  originally  the  intention  of  the  builder  of  the  first 
line  to  connect  both  bays,  uniting  such  towns  and  cities 
as  Moca,  La  Vega,  Santiago,  and  San  Lorenzo,  with 
Sanchez,  and  the  Bay  of  Manzanillo  or  Monte  Cristi,  at 
either  end.  But  the  many  obstacles  incident  to  railroad 
construction  in  a  tropical  country,  where  a  corrupt  gov- 
ernment granted  land  to  which  it  had  no  title,  and  mean- 
spirited  citizens  insisted  upon  extortionate  damages  for 


MISGOVERNED    SANTO    DOMINGO     i8i 

the  taking  of  properties  to  which  they  laid  claim,  proved 
too  much  for  the  projector  of  this  enterprise. 

A  great  natural  highway,  however,  runs  from  one  end 
of  this  double  valley  to  the  other,  and  though  from 
Samana  to  Santiago  the  ordinary  road  is  almost  impass- 
able, especially  in  the  rainy  season,  yet  from  Santiago 
to  Monte  Cristi  wheeled  vehicles  may  be  driven  at  all 
times. 

It  was  my  fortune  twice  to  pass  over  the  gap  existing 
between  La  Vega  and  Santiago,  a  distance  of  perhaps 
twenty  miles,  and  it  took  me  six  hours,  mounted  on  a  good 
island  pony,  to  accomplish  the  journey.  The  roadway 
was  a  perfect  Sargasso  sea  of  mudholes,  in  which  human 
bipeds  and  beasts  of  burden  floundered  almost  hopelessly, 
the  former  hopping  from  hummock  to  hummock,  and  the 
latter  plunging  belly  deep  in  holes  the  length  of  their  legs. 
This  was  one  of  the  first  highways  ever  surveyed  in  the 
New  World,  and  yet  to-day,  doubtless,  it  is  in  worse  con- 
dition than  four  hundred  years  ago,  when  the  virgin  forest 
first  resounded  to  the  clang  of  armor  and  the  smiting  of 
steel  on  stone,  as  the  cavaliers  of  Columbus  made  their 
explorations. 

When  Columbus  first  rnarched  his  gallant  caballeros 
through  the  "  Hidalgos'  Pass  "  in  the  Yaqui  Mountains, 
setting  out  from  the  city  he  had  founded  in  1493,  ^^^ 
called  Isabella,  he  found,  in  the  valley  revealed  as  the  crest 
was  reached,  a  gentle  and  docile  body  of  people,  engaged 
in  cultivating  the  soil  and  innocent  pastimes. 

In  his  second  expedition  to  the  interior,  having  ascended 
the  Yaqui  as  far  as  the  present  site  of  Santiago  and 
crossed  the  watershed,  he  was  so  overcome  by  the  beauty 
of  the  great  valley  as  seen  from  the  hill  of  Santo  Cerro 
that  he  fell  on  his  knees  and  thanked  God  for  the  privilege 


182       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

of  beholding  it.  He  called  it  the  Vega  Real,  Royal  Valley 
or  Plain,  since  it  surpassed  in  natural  charms  every  scene 
he  had  ever  looked  upon. 

This  was  in  1494 ;  in  1495  ^e  led  his  forces  against  the 
hitherto  peaceful  Indians  and  overwhelmed  them  with 
terrible  slaughter,  converting  the  hill  of  Santo  Cerro, 
whence  he  had  first  viewed  the  beautiful  Vega,  and  is 
said  to  have  directed  the  battle,  into  a  veritable  Golgotha. 
Closely  following  upon  that  engagement,  in  which  the 
backbone  of  an  Indian  rebellion  was  broken,  came  the 
establishment  of  the  third  in  a  chain  of  forts  built  to  com- 
mand the  valley  of  Yaqui  and  the  western  Vega.  It  was 
called  Concepcion,  and  after  it  the  village  of  that  name, 
still  existing.  Fort  Concepcion  de  la  Vega  was  destroyed 
by  an  earthquake  in  1564,  but  remains  of  one  of  its 
bastions  are  still  to  be  seen,  as  also  portions  of  the  bell 
tower  of  a  church  erected  soon  after  it  was  built. 

The  year  previous,  in  1494,  a  settlement  had  been 
effected  at  a  spot  called  Jacagua,  about  two  or  three  miles 
from  the  site  of  Santiago,  where  a  spring  of  delicious 
water  and  good  soil  made  an  excellent  location.  But  ten 
years  later,  or  in  1504,  a  body  of  hidalgos  petitioned 
King  Ferdinand  of  Spain  for  permission  to  locate  upon 
the  more  commanding  situation  of  Santiago,  on  the  bluff 
above  the  river  Yaqui. 

They  were,  most  of  them,  of  noble  blood — hidalgos,  or 
hijos  de  algos,  "  sons  of  somebody  " — and  probably  the 
pick  of  the  conquistadores.  Their  request  was  granted, 
and  also  permission  to  distinguish  their  city  by  the  appel- 
lation it  so  proudly  insists  upon  to-day :  de  los  Caballeros, 
"  The  City  of  the  Gentlemen,"  in  itself  a  patent  of  nobil- 
ity. At  the  outset  a  place  of  importance,  soon  outranking 
the  city  of  Santo  Domingo,  which  was  founded  by  the 


MISGOVERNED    SANTO    DOMINGO     183 

plebeian  Bartholomew  Columbus  two  years  later,  San- 
tiago de  los  Caballeros  has  ever  held  itself  to  be  the  aris- 
tocratic capital. 

It  is  pitiful,  in  view  of  the  changes  that  have  happened 
in  the  past  centuries,  to  find  the  population  of  the  island 
maintaining  this  distinction  to-day ;  to-day,  when  the 
descendants  of  negro  slaves  claim  to  be  the  caballeros,  and 
those  of  the  conquistadores  have  nearly  disappeared.  Yet 
more  pitiful  is  the  fact  that  the  descendants  of  those 
doughty  conquerors,  who,  despite  their  cruelties,  have 
won  a  meed  of  admiration  for  their  bravery  and  unflinch- 
ing endurance,  have  for  many  years  been  subject  to  the 
inferior  race ! 

The  white  population  of  the  island,  all  too  few  in  num- 
ber, has  its  largest  representation  here,  and  there  are  old" 
families  who  can  boast  descent,  more  or  less  direct  and 
contaminated  with  negro  and  aboriginal  blood,  from  the 
intrepid  companions  of  Columbus.  I  myself  have  seen, 
have  purchased  from  their  owners,  rare  old  "  Toledos  " 
that  doubtless  came  over  with  the  conquerors — perhaps 
the  very  swords  with  which  the  valiant  Spaniards  were 
wont  to  cleave  the  skulls  of  inoffensive  Indians — as  we 
read  was  their  daily  custom  of  a  morning,  in  order  to  keep 
their  hands  in,  and  to  prove  the  keenness  of  their  blades. 

The  degradation  to  which  the  Sons  of  Somebody  have 
descended,  and  the  poverty  that  would  induce  the  parting 
with  such  precious  heirlooms,  are  suggestive,  to  say  the 
least.  But  what  can  you  expect  from  a  people  who  have 
been  under  the  iron  heel  of  oppression  for  many  genera- 
tions, who  have  been  accustomed  to  look  up  to,  and  not 
down  upon,  the  African  sons  of  nobody? 

It  is  difficult  for  the  Anglo-Saxon,  so-called,  to  survive 
three     generations     in     the     tropics,     without     physical 


i84       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

degeneration,  even  when  dominant  and  aggressive. 
What,  then,  of  these  Latins  who  have  maintained  them- 
selves without  actual  racial  deterioration,  and  can  boast — 
have  the  spirit  left  to  boast — of  their  ancestral  traditions  ? 

Because  of  this  distinguished  ancestry,  perhaps,  the 
residents  of  Santiago  have  made  many,  though  ineffectual, 
protests  against  the  black  and  yellow  domination  which, 
since  the  expulsion  of  the  Spaniards,  has  prevailed  in 
Santo  Domingo.  Introduced  to  take  the  place  of  the 
fast-disappearing  Indians  (some  historians  say  at  the 
instance  of  Las  Casas  himself,  though  from  the  best  of 
motives),  the  blacks  from  Africa  finally  became  numeric- 
ally superior  to  the  whites — they  and  their  various  mesti- 
zos— and  in  the  end  predominated. 

One  of  the  most  famous,  and  by  all  odds  the  greatest, 
of  those  usurpers  with  black  blood  in  their  veins  was  the 
late  President,  Ulises  Heureaux,  who  was  assassinated  in 
1899.  He  was  an  especial  object  of  detestation  to  the 
caballeros,  but  rode  over  them  rough  shod.  Not  that 
"  Lilis  "  (to  use  the  diminutive  by  which  his  subjects  gen- 
erally spoke  of  him),  was  other  than  *' the  mildest-man- 
nered man  that  ever  cut  a  throat,"  or  that  the  writer  has 
any  prejudice  against  him  personally.  But  throats  he 
cut — or  men  he  shot,  which  amounts  to  the  same  thing — 
and  many  of  them,  merely  to  keep  himself  in  power. 

He  seemed  possessed  of  the  idea  that  he  was  the  man 
for  the  country;  but,  as  he  never  did  anything  for  the 
country  except  to  continually  squeeze  it,  that  his  coffers 
might  be  filled,  the  impression  somehow  got  abroad  that 
perhaps  he  was  not  the  right  man  after  all.  He  once  told 
me,  in  conversation,  that  he  rarely  had  a  man  shot  for 
opinion's  sake,  or  imprisoned  that  he  did  not  soon  release 
him.     For,  said  he  naively,  in  his  quaint  and  broken 


MISGOVERNED     SANTO    DOMINGO      185 

English,  "  What  good  it  do  me  ef  I  kill  he  ?  Then  he 
brother,  he  father,  he  wife — all  make  my  enemy.  But  ef 
I  put  he  in  preeson,  and  then  take  he  out,  and  feed  he, 
and  give  he  clothe,  he's  family  all  my  frien'." 

Nothwithstanding  this  protest,  there  was  a  discrepancy 
between  his  theory  and  his  practice,  as  several  score  of 
political  victims  might  testify — peradventure  they  could 
revisit  this  world  from  which  the  astute  "  Lilis  "  so  incon- 
tinently thrust  them  forth. 

I  remember  that  on  my  first  visit  to  Santiago  I  carried  a 
letter  of  introduction  to  a  white  man  of  high  attainments, 
who  honored  me  with  an  exceedingly  generous  hospitality. 
I  departed  for  the  hills  in  search  of  gold  and  ancient  relics, 
and  when  I  returned  a  few  weeks  later  my  talented  host 
was  not  to  be  found.  His  house  was  there,  but  closed ; 
his  friends  answered  my  queries  evasively  with  sug- 
gestive shrugs  of  the  shoulders,  and  it  was  some  time 
before  I  learned  that  he  had  been  taken  suddenly  to 
the  capital  and  incarcerated  in  the  castle.  From  the 
castle  he  was  taken  out  and  shot  to  death — so  far  as  I 
could  ascertain  for  no  other  reason  than  his  aversion  to 
the  President. 

No  less  than  seventy  such  summary  executions  were 
charged  upon  "Lilis  "  after  his  downfall  and  death;  and 
it  was  further  charged  that  no  man's  life,  no  woman's 
virtue,  was  safe  in  Santo  Domingo  while  he  lived. 

I  do  not  make  the  charge,  for  it  is  common  report  in 
the  island,  that  he  played  the  tyrant  as  hardly  the  role  wa^ 
filled  before  for  centuries.  And  yet  "  Lilis  "  had  many 
good  qualities.  He  was  modest,  and  unquestionably 
brave ;  he  spoke  three  languages,  was  a  born  diplomat 
and  a  past  master  in  the  art  of  political  and  other 
intrigue.    How  many  bullets  he  carried  in  his  body  I  do 


i86       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

not  know ;  but  several  had  found  him  out,  and  one  of  his 
arms  hung  useless  from  a  wound  received  when  he  was 
fighting — for  or  against  the  government. 

He  may  have  made  many  mistakes  during  his  long 
reign,  but  the  final  one  consisted  in  shooting  the  wrong 
man!  As  long  ago  as  1884,  it  is  said,  he  put  to  death 
one  Caceres,  a  man  of  respectable  family;  and  fifteen 
years  later,  in  July,  1899,  a  son  of  this  man  shot  him  to 
death  in  the  town  of  Moca,  whither  he  had  gone  to 
arrange  for  a  loan.  Brave  to  the  last,  the  President  tried 
to  draw  his  revolver  and  make  stand  against  his  foe ;  but 
he  was  taken  by  surprise,  and  fell  to  the  ground  shot 
through  the  heart.  His  guard  fired  several  ineffectual 
shots  at  the  assassin ;  but  he  escaped,  and,  the  deed  being 
done,  was  lauded  as  a  hero  all  over  the  island. 

Many  a  man  had  desired  to  kill  *'  Lilis  "  before  this 
event  deprived  the  government  of  its  head ;  many  a  man 
had  attempted  to  do  so,  but  the  despot  always  got  wind  of 
the  plots  and  turned  the  tables  upon  the  conspirators.  In 
1894  he  executed  six  ringleaders  in  a  conspiracy  against 
him,  and  the  number  of  people  he  had  put  to  death  on 
various  pretexts,  without' trial,  is  estimated  at  more  than 
three  hundred.  But  he  was  deprived  of  power  and  of 
life  at  the  same  moment,  and  others  arose  to  misgovern 
the  so-called  republic. 

Writing  soon  after  President  Heureaux  was  shot,  I 
said  that  while  his  death  had  released  the  island  from 
despotism,  it  might  plunge  it  into  anarchy ;  and  sub- 
sequent events  seemed  to  bear  out  that  prediction,  for 
soon  there  rose  Jimenez,  Vasquez  (whose  cousin  shot 
"Lilis"),  Woz  y  Gil  (who  was  at  the  time  Dominican 
consul  in  New  York),  and  finally  Morales,  to  dispute 
with  Vice  President  Figueroa  the  succession  to  execu- 


MISGOVERNED    SANTO    DOMINGO      187 

tive  power.  The  latest  happenings,  the  ''  revokitions  " 
and  counter-revolutions ;  the  sending  to  Santo  Domingo 
of  an  American  war-ship  and  the  shooting  of  an  American 
marine,  are  events  too  fresh  in  memory  to  need  especial 
mention. 

The  great  Cuban  patriot.  General  Maximo  Gomez,  has 
been  frequently  invoked  (as  a  son  of  Santo  Domingo)  to 
aid  one  aspirant  or  another;  but  he  told  me  himself,  in 
Havana,  that  there  was  not  an  honest  politician  in  the 
island.  He  might  perhaps  have  made  it  more  compre- 
hensive ;  but  he  was  speaking  only  of  Santo  Domingo. 

It  is  the  same  old  story:  innumerable  aspirants  for  the 
presidency,  but  only  one  presidential  chair  to  be  filled — 
at  the  time.  If  there  could  be  introduced  a  certain  sort 
of  rotation  in  office,  by  which  one  of  the  gentlemen  could 
be  seated  and  held  in  power  for  the  space,  say,  of  a 
month,  and  then  be  induced  to  resign  in  favor  of  the 
''  next,"  an  element  of  stability  might  be  introduced  into 
Dominican  affairs. 

But  the  presidential  bee  is  an  inconsiderate  insect — in 
Santo  Domingo — as  well  as  all-pervasive,  for  it  seems  to 
buzz  in  every  ear  at  once.  No  sooner  does  one  man  feel 
that  the  salvation  of  his  beloved  country  depends  upon  his 
election  to  the  presidency,  than  at  least  a  score  of  other 
"  patriots  "  become  convinced  that  they,  too,  were  born 
especially  for  prcsidentes,  and  evince  their  determination 
in  no  unmistakable  manner  to  carry  out  the  evident 
designs  of  fate.  The  wonder  is,  not  particularly  that  so 
many  Dominicans  are  afflicted  simultaneously  with  the 
presidential  hankering,  but  that  they  can  find  so  many 
adherents  on  the  spur  of  the  moment. 

The  average  Dominican  is  accustomed  to  carry  fire- 
arms almost  from  the  time  he  can  walk  without  assist- 


i88        OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

ance,  and  he  blindly  adheres  to  whomsoever  comes  along 
first  and  makes  the  best  offer  for  his  services.  That  is, 
he  adheres  to  him  until  his  convictions  are  changed  by  a 
better  offer ;  and  this  accounts  for  the  fact  that  there  are 
always  so  many  revolutionists  in  the  field  and  fighting  so 
promiscuously.  A  government  partisan  one  day  may  be 
a  revolutionist  the  next,  depending  upon  the  celerity  with 
which  he  can  change  his  convictions  and  get  outside  the 
walls. 

Generally  speaking,  a  government  soldier  is  one  fight- 
ing behind  the  city  walls ;  while  a  "  revolutionist "  is  one 
without  and  wandering  in  the  open.  Of  whatever  party, 
however,  the  Dominican  soldier  is  always  the  same  in  one 
respect — he  cannot  shoot.  Were  he  a  marksman  of  even 
average  ability,  the  Republic  would  long  ago  have  been 
deprived  of  its  most  eminent  citizens,  for  it  is  doubtful 
if  there  lives  any  man  of  prominence  in  Santo  Domingo 
who  has  not  been  shot  at  a  number  of  times. 

It  also  strikes  the  observer  in  the  island  with  surprise 
that,  with  double  the  area  of  Haiti,  Santo  Domingo  pos- 
sesses only  half  the  population  of  the  ''  Black  Republic." 
The  generous  rivalry  going  on  between  the  two  republics 
doubtless  serves  to  keep  down  the  population  of  both, 
and  the  time  may  come  when,  in  the  interests  of  civiliza- 
tion, some  more  powerful  nation  will  step  in  to  stay  the 
slaughter.  There  are  those,  to  be  sure,  who  pretend  that 
the  interests  of  civilization  can  best  be  served  by  allowing 
it  to  proceed!  but  these,  needless  to  say,  are  somewhat 
prejudiced. 

Perhaps  they  are  among  those  belonging  to  the  rather 
large  number  of  foreigners  who  have  secured  "  conces- 
sions "  from  the  government  of  Santo  Domingo.  Haiti 
never  grants  any  concession  to  the  white  man,  of  what- 


MISGOVERNED     SANTO    DOMINGO      189 

ever  kind,  having  had  one  bitter  experience  at  least, 
which  has  sufficed  her  for  more  than  a  century.  The 
black  man  knows  when  he  has  enough ;  but  the  colored 
citizen  of  the  Dominican  half  of  the  island  has  yet  to 
learn. 

Like  his  great  contemporary,  President  Diaz,  of  Mex- 
ico, Heureaux  wisely  realized  the  value  of  foreign  capital 
properly  invested — that  is,  in  such  a  manner  that  it  could 
not  be  zvithdrazvn  from  the  country — and  encouraged  all 
enterprises  to  that  end.  This  will  account  for  the  rail- 
roads in  the  island,  such  as  that  from  the  bay  of  Samana 
to  the  Vega  or  interior  vale  of  Santo  Domingo,  and  from 
Puerto  Plata  to  Santiago.  Also  for  the  taking  over  by 
a  foreign  concern  (originally  Dutch,  but  now  Am.erican) 
of  the  debt  and  the  administration  of  the  customs. 

It  is  a  tradition  in  Santo  Domingo  that  no  foreigner 
ever  held  the  better  end  of  a  bargain  with  "  Lilis  " ;  nor, 
as  to  that  matter,  with  any  of  his  numerous  successors.. 
But  there  are  several  living  witnesses  to  these  things ;  let 
them  come  forward  and  testify. 

This  allusion  to  personal  encounters  with  the  presidents 
brings  me  to  speak  of  a  little  enterprise  which  I  myself 
once  attempted  to  carry  through.  Not  for  my  own 
benefit,  but  (as  I  viewed  it  then)  for  the  benefit,  or  glor- 
ification rather,  of  the  great  United  States.  It  was  while 
serving  in  the  capacity  of  commissioner  to  the  West 
Indies  for  the  Chicago  exposition  of  1893.  Desiring  to 
advance  the  interests  of  the  exposition  to  the  best  of  my 
ability,  I  conceived  the  design  (as  it  was  a  "  Columbian  " 
exposition,  and  desirous  of  securing  all  relics  of  Colum- 
bus) of  inducing  the  Dominicans  to  erect  at  Chicago  a 
reproduction  of  the  old  tower  that  stands  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Ozama  River,  the  "  Homenage,"  and  fill  it  with 


I90        OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

relics  of  Columbus  and  his  period.  The  President  ac- 
cepted my  proposal  with  avidity,  and  sent  his  minister  of 
public  affairs  to  the  consulate,  where  I  made  my  head- 
quarters, to  negotiate. 

I  thought  the  way  smooth  for  securing  the  object  of 
my  desires ;  but  I  had  not  counted  upon  that  peculiar  trait 
of  the  Dominican  which  (to  state  it  mildly)  attaches  a 
mercenary  value  to  patriotism.  The  minister  of  public 
affairs  came  and  talked  it  over  with  me,  and  all  seemed 
going  along  swimmingly  until  I  happened  to  mention 
that  the  reproduction  of  the  tower  would  probably  cost 
his  republic  a  matter  of  twenty  thousand  dollars  or  so. 

He  then  made  reply  that  they  had  considered  this 
expenditure,  and  had  concluded,  in  view  of  the  poverty 
of  their  country,  and  inasmuch  as  all  their  revenues  were 
hypothecated  to  the  "  Dutch  loan,"  to  ask  the  exposition 
managers  for  a  loan  of,  say,  $100,000,  from  which  they 
would  be  reimbursed  to  the  amount  of  $10,000  annually! 

After  I  had  recovered  from  the  first  shock  of  surprise, 
the  humor  of  the  incident  struck  me  so  forcibly  that  I 
resolved  to  go  through  with  it  to  the  end,  in  order  to  see 
to  what  lengths  the  government  was  ready  to  proceed. 
So  I  said  that  perhaps  my  people  would  erect  the  tower 
themselves,  and  then  Santo  Domingo  would  only  have  to 
fill  it  with  her  products,  etc. 

I  was  met  with  the  astounding  statement  that  what 
they  wanted  was  the  loan,  from  which  we  could  deduct 
the  $20,000  in  advance  (a  vast  concession,  which  the 
minister  rolled  as  a  sweet  morsel  under  his  tongue),  and 
we  could  fill  it  with  what  we  pleased.  And  he  added, 
bringing  forward  an  argument  which  he  evidently  con- 
sidered convincing,  that  if  we  would  grant  the  loan  (for 
Dominica  to  represent  herself  at  the  exposition),  they 


MISGOVERNED   SANTO    DOMINGO       191 

would  send  over  ''  the  most  sacred  remains  of  Don 
Christopher  Columbus,"  which  (as  I  knew)  they  still 
held  conserved  in  their  cathedral. 

.1  was  somewhat  dubious  about  the  bones  of  Columbus. 
Not  that  I  had  doubts  as  to  their  authenticity;  but  did 
have  grave  doubts  as  to  the  propriety  of  receiving  them 
as  an  "  exhibit." 

I  sought  to  minimize  his  claim  by  casually  alluding  to 
the  doubts  which  existed  as  to  their  remains  being  the 
real  and  only  legitimate  bones  of  Columbus;  but  he  was 
not  to  be  '*  bluffed."  We  carried  the  matter  before  the 
President,  with  whom  I  had  a  personal  interview.  He 
was  evidently  the  real  author  of  the  minister's  suggestion, 
for,  after  listening  to  my  protest  against  his  government 
humiliating  itself  by  asking  a  loan,  instead  of  honoring 
itself  by  voluntary  representation  at  the  exposition,  he 
replied  : 

"Now,  Mistair  Commissionaire,  it  ees  not  ze  honaire 
zat  we  want,  but  ze  loan.  You  may  have  ze  honaire,  my 
dear  frien',  but  I  have  conclude  zat  to  go  zare  eet  ees 
necessarie  to  mek  one  leetle  loan,  and  for  zis  loan  I  will 
pay  seex  per  cent,  eenterest,  and  will  return  eet  at  ze  rate 
of  ten  souzand  dollair  evary  year." 

In  order  to  understand  the  full  significance  of  the 
offer  made  by  the  government  of  Santo  Domingo,  and 
at  the  same  time  clear  up  the  mystery  attaching  to  the 
two  sets  of  "  remains  "  left  behind  by  Columbus  when  he 
died,  let  me  explain: 

We  will  grant  that  he  died  at  Valladolid,  Spain,  1506. 
After  his  demise  his  remains  were  taken  to  Seville,  where 
they  were  deposited  in  the  monastery  of  Las  Cuevas; 
but  as  there  was  a  clause  in  his  last  will  and  testament 
desiring  that  they  might  at  some  time  be  transported  to 


192        OUR  WEST  INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

Santo  Domingo,  this  depository  was  considered  as 
temporary,  though  it  was  not  until  1540  that  his  request 
was  fulfilled. 

In  the  lapse  of  centuries,  and  some  say  owing  to  the 
necessity  for  concealing  his  tomb  for  fear  of  sacrilege  by 
Sir  Francis  Drake  and  other  "  English  pirates  "  who  were 
cruising  in  the  Caribbean  sea,  the  actual  place  of  sepul- 
ture was  lost  sight  of.  Others  of  his  name  and  family 
had  been  deposited  there  beneath  slabs  let  into  the  pave- 
ment, but  without  distinctive  inscriptions. 

In  1795  the  island  passed  to  the  French,  and  it  was 
desired  to  remove  the  remains  of  Christopher  Columbus 
to  Havana;  but  nothing,  however,  could  be  found  to 
identify  his  boveda,  or  vault. 

A  frigate  was  sent  from  Havana  with  orders  to  trans- 
port the  great  Columbus  to  Cuba,  and  it  was  necessary 
that  his  remains  should  be  found. 

Officials  sounded  the  pavement,  and,  finding  a  slab  that 
gave  forth  a  hollow  noise,  excavated  beneath  and  dis- 
covered fragments  of  bones  and  of  a  leaden  case,  which 
they  took  up  with  great  care  and  bore  to  the  frigate  with 
vast  pomp  and  ceremony.  The  rcstos  were  deposited  in 
a  niche  made  for  the  purpose  in  Havana  Cathedral. 

I  would  much  rather  believe  that  the  bones  of  Colum- 
bus still  remain  in  the  land  to  which  he  gave  a  new  con- 
tinent and  beneath  the  flag  which  he  carried  on  his  voy- 
ages of  discovery. 

Not  that  the  Spaniards  deserved  well  of  Columbus, 
nor  that  he  himself  desired  to  rest  in  the  soil  of  Spain ; 
for  they  permitted  him  to  die  neglected,  if  not  in  poverty. 

It  would  seem  that  his  desire  had  been  granted,  and 
that  his  ashes  "  repose  "  in  the  island  of  Santo  Domingo; 
but  here  again  comes  in  the  irony  of  a  discriminating 


MISGOVERNED   SANTO   DOMINGO      193 

fate.  Not  even  Columbus,  far-seeing  as  he  was,  could 
have  divined  that  the  island  he  had  toiled  for  and  fought 
for  would  pass  i^to  the  hands  of  the  descendants  of  the 
Africans  taken  there  as  slaves. 

Negro  slavery  in  America  had  its  beginning  in  that 
very  island  of  Santo  Domingo.  To-day  we  find  the  re- 
mote descendants  of  Africans  who  were  torn  from  their 
homes  by  the  Spaniards,  and  who  wore  their  lives  out 
beneath  the  lash  of  Spanish  task-masters,  exhibiting  as 
the  most  precious  of  their  treasures  the  remains  of  the 
man  who  laid  the  foundations  of  that  slavery! 

It  is  probable  that  the  Spaniards  took  the  ashes  of 
Diego,  the  only  legitimate  son  of  Christopher  Columbus, 
to  Havana,  and  hence  one  hundred  years  later  to  Spain. 
I  do  not  ask  anyone  to  accept  this  statement  on  my 
assertion,  but  will  now  relate  the  discovery  of  the  second 
set  of  "  remains,"  upon  which  the  Dominicans  found 
their  claim  to  the  "  real  and  only  legitimate  rcstos.'' 

In  1877,  while  repairs  were  being  made  in  the  cathe- 
dral, a  vault  was  discovered  from  which  the  workmen 
took  a  leaden  casket  containing  not  only  fragments  of 
bones,  but  a  silver  plate  with  an  inscription  setting  forth 
that  these  were  the  remains  of  Don  Cristobal  Colon,  dis- 
coverer of  America,  etc. 

The  leaden  case  also  bore  an  inscription,  **  Illustre  y 
esclarecido  Varon,  Don  Cristobal  Colon/'  and  there  was 
likewise  a  bullet,  which,  it  was  claimed,  Columbus  had 
received  in  a  skirmish  with  pirates  in  Africa.  Here, 
then,  was  evidence  in  abundance — more  than  was  actu- 
ally necessary,  in  fact — that  the  restos  had  at  last  been 
found. 

The  island  was  shaken  from  center  to  circumference, 
as  it  was  quickly  realized  what  a  valuable  asset  these 


194       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

remains  could  be  made  and  the  Dominican  author- 
ities really  rose  to  the  occasion.  They  carefully  collected 
the  fragments  of  bones,  ashes,  bits  of  l^ad,  and  so  forth, 
and  had  them  placed,  together  with  the  leaden  case,  in  an 
tirna,  or  casket,  of  satinwood  and  glass.  This  casket 
was  kept  in  a  secure  place,  and  three  keys  were  provided, 
all  of  which  were  necessary  to  unlock  it. 

One  key  was  in  the  custody  of  the  cathedral  chapter, 
another  in  the  keeping  of  the  President  of  the  Repub- 
lic, and  the  third  of  the  Ayuntamiento,  or  city  council. 

At  the  time  the  **  legitimate "  remains  were  found 
another  vault  opened  disclosed  the  restos  of  Don  Luis 
Columbus,  Duke  of  Veragua,  and  as  it  was  pretty  well 
known  that  the  third  Columbus  interred  in  the  Presby- 
tery was  Don  Diego,  who  at  one  time  was  viceroy  of 
Santo  Domingo,  upon  this  inference  is  based  the  as- 
sumption that  it  was  he  who  was  taken  away  in  1795. 

At  Pajarito,  the  hamlet  that  was  shelled  by  the  "  New- 
ark "  on  February  11,  1904,  still  stands  the  old  chapel 
from  the  doorway  of  which  Bobadilla  proclaimed  his 
authority  to  supersede  Columbus,  just  prior  to  sending 
him  to  Spain  in  chains.  It  would  seem  that  this  pre- 
cious old  city,  with  its  historic  relics  and  memorials  of 
an  interesting  past,  has  a  rather  precarious  tenure  of  ex- 
istence, what  with  the  bombardment  it  has  undergone 
and  is  still  likely  to  be  subject  to  from  one  revolutionary 
party  or  the  other. 

Whether  they  will  hold  the  relics  of  Columbus  in 
greater  veneration  than  they  do  the  ancient  structures 
they  so  recklessly  turn  their  fire  against,  remains  to  be 
seen.  It  so  happens,  however,  that  some  of  the  most 
precious  of  American  memorials  are  in  possession  of 
men  of  alien  race  and  sympathies. 


MISGOVERNED    SANTO    DOMINGO     195 

Whether  they  have  a  proper  regard  for  them,  merely 
as  reHcs  of  the  historic  past,  may  perhaps  be  gathered 
from  my  own  experiences.  I  refer  now  to  the  story 
respecting  the  alleged  sale  of  the  remains. 

It  is  not  true  that  the  remains  of  Columbus  were  of- 
fered to  me  on  sale,  but  it  is  true  that  there  was  a  tenta- 
tive memorandum  drawn  up  regarding  their  transfer  to 
this  country  as  an  "  exhibit."  This  memorandum  is  on 
official  paper  bearing  the  imprint :  "  Republica  Domin- 
icana,  Ministerio  de  Fomento  y  Obras  Publicas." 

The  substance  of  the  document  is  as  follows: 

I. — The  Dominican  Government  is  enthusiastic  in  its  desire  to 
assist  at  said  Exposition  in  1893,  for  the  purpose  of  exhibiting 
there  the  products  of  the  island,  natural,  mineral,  industrial,  etc. 

2. — The  Dominican  Government  would  include  in  its  exhibits 
the  remains  of  the  great  discoverer,  Don  Christopher  Colum- 
bus; provided,  however,  that  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  of  America,  or  duly  accredited  officials,  would  so  manifest 
their  desire,  and  would  guarantee  to  receive  the  precious  relics 
with  all  the  honors  due  to  a  personage  of  the  exalted  station  of 
the  great  admiral;  also  with  the  proper  guarantees  for  their 
restoration. 

3. — It  would  be  expected  that  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  would  waive  the  collection  of  duties  on  such  articles  as 
were  intended  for  exhibition,  and  that  they  might  be  sold  at  its 
close. 

4. — In  order  to  accomplish  its  desires,  it  will  be  necessary  for 
the  Dominican  Government  to  effect  a  loan,  in  the  United  States, 
of  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  ($100,000),  in  gold,  interest  on 
the  same  to  be  at  six  (6)  per  cent. ;  and  the  principal  to  be  re- 
funded at  the  rate  of  ten  thousand  dollars  ($10,000)  annually. 

As  security  for  this  loan,  the  Dominican  Government  will 
pledge  a  portion  of  its  annual  revenues,  guaranteed  by  an  order 
on  the  Casa  de  Recaudacion,  and  for  the  return  of  the  propor- 
tional amount  as  agreed  upon. 

5. — It  is  agreed  that  if  the  Commissioner  be  successful  in 
securing  this   loan    (as   above  mentioned)    of  $100,000,  he   may 


196       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

reserve  the  sum  of  twenty  thousand  dollars  ($20,000)  for  the 
construction  of  a  Government  building  at  Chicago,  said  building 
to  be  an  exact  reproduction  of  the  old  castle  in  this  Capital, 
known  as  the  "  Homenage,"  and  conforming  to  the  plans  of  the 
architect  in  charge. 

6. — To  accompany  the  precious  remains  of  Don  Christopher 
Columbus  during  their  transportation  and  throughout  the  period 
of  their  repose  at  the  Exposition,  the  Dominican  Government 
will  designate  a  commission  of  its  most  distingiiished  citizens,  to 
the  number  of  six,  who  will  guard  these  sacred  relics  while  they 
are  in  the  United  States  of  America,  and  until  they  are  again 
returned  to  their  final  resting-place  in  this  Capital. 

This  precious  document,  a  speaking  commentary  on 
the  astuteness  of  Dominican  diplomacy,  was  signed  by 
both  the  Minister  of  Public  Affairs  and  myself,  in  the 
presence  of  the  late  President  Heureaux,  who  looked 
smilingly  on,  nodding  his  approval. 

That  "  Minister  de  Fomento  "  was  Sefior  Woz  y  Gil, 
who  was  ousted  from  the  presidential  chair  in  1903,  hav- 
ing succeeded,  after  several  intermediaries,  the  gallant 
and  sanguinary  "  citizen  president "  of  Santo  Domingo 
who  now.  sleeps  his  last  with  the  great  church  of  Santiago 
de  los  Cabelleros  as  his  solitary  tomb. 


XII 
TREASURES  IN  SEA  AND  SOIL 

Santo  Domingo  girdled  with  sunken  treasure  galleons — The 
Treasure-trove  of  Silver  Shoals — The  fleet  that  went  down 
off  Puerto  Plata — What  Davy  Jones's  locker  contains — 
Search  of  Sir  William  Phipps  for  the  Spanish  silver — Cot- 
ton Mather's  account  of  the  voyage — How  the  Phipps  for- 
tune was  acquired — Silver  bullion  brought  up  by  the  ton — 
Lion's  share  appropriated  by  the  Duke  of  Albemarle — 
What  his  heirs  did  with  it — The  harbor  of  Puerto  Plata — 
Beautiful  bay  and  harbor  of  Samana — The  Samana  penin- 
sula and  Bay  of  Arrows — Santa  Barbara,  Sanchez,  Savana 
de  la  mar.  La  Vega,  Moca,  and  Macoris — The  railroad  to 
the  interior — When  Samana  came  near  being  annexed  to  the 
United  States — The  regions  for  agricultural  and  mineral 
development — When  gold  was  first  discovered  by  Europeans 
in  America,  and  where  it  was  found — The  River  of  Golden 
Sands — Where  gold  may  be  found  at  the  present  time — 
The  natives  wash  it  out  with  a  calabash — Handfuls  of  nug- 
gets and  where  they  were  obtained — The  mystery  of  the 
Cibao  country. 

WHILE  I  was  in  the  town  of  Puerto  Plata,  at 
one  time,  the  people  there  were  greatly  ex- 
cited over  the  rumored  discovery  of  some 
silver  bars,  found  on  or  near  a  submerged  reef  known 
as  the  Silver  Bank  or  Shoals.  Inquiry  revealed  the 
fact  that  the  submarine  treasure  had  probably  lain  be- 
neath the  water  for  more  than  two  hundred  years,  and 
further  research  convinced  me  that  a  one-time  resident 
of  my  own  State,  Massachusetts,  had  searched  for,  and 
had  found  some,  of  the  treasure  alluded  to. 

197 


198       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

West  Indian  waters  still  conceal  the  wrecks  of  many 
Spanish  galleons  sent  to  the  bottom  long  ago  by  buc- 
caneers, by  storm  and  hurricane;  and  in  fact  the  island 
of  Santo  Domingo  is  completely  girdled  with  them. 
Probably  the  richest  treasure  ever  sunk  in  any  sea  was 
that  contained  in  the  galleon  which  sailed  from  the  port 
of  Santo  Domingo  in  1502,  with  Governor  Bobadilla, 
the  persecutor  of  Christopher  Columbus,  aboard.  It 
was  lost  in  a  terrible  hurricane,  predicted  by  Columbus, 
who  was  the  "  weather  sharp  "  of  those  days,  and  it  lies 
ofif  the  southeast  coast  of  the  island,  near  the  islet  of 
Saona. 

Among  other  treasures  contained  in  this  galleon 
was  a  mass  of  pure  gold,  the  largest  nugget  ever 
found  in  the  West  Indies,  perhaps  in  the  world.  As 
neither  wreck  nor  gold  has  yet  been  located,  there  is  still 
a  tempting  prize  for  some  daring  diver  with  modern 
equipment  to  recover. 

Four  hundred  years  have  passed  since  Bobadilla  and 
his  ill-gotten  gold  went  down,  and  two  hundred  and 
seventy  since  the  Puerto  Plata  treasure  went  to  Davy 
Jones's  locker.  The  latter  was  contained  in  a  Spanish 
fleet  homeward  bound  from  the  Isthmus  laden  with  silver 
from  the  mines  of  Peru.  The  commander  of  the  fleet 
was  bearing  up  for  the  Bahamas  channel,  after  passing 
through  which  he  would  have  an  open  passage  all  the 
way  to  Spain.  But  Fate,  in  the  shape  of  a  great  storm, 
interposed,  and  the  entire  fleet  went  to  the  bottom  not 
far  distant  from  Puerto  Plata  on  the  north  coast  of  Santo 
Domingo. 

As  to  the  sinking  of  this  fleet  with  its  vast  treasure  of 
silver  and  rich  freightage  of  pearls  and  gold,  an  authentic 
account    has    been   preserved   in    the   pages   of   Cotton 


>  .  »  '    ^- 


'  '  t     f  <     ( 


.      TREASURES   IN   SEA  AND   SOIL        199 

Mather's  ''  Magnalia  Christi  Americana/'  published  two 
hundred  years  ago.  It  was  not  the  erudite  Mather's  in- 
tention, perhaps,  to  chronicle  the  happenings  of  a  treas- 
ure-seeking expedition  per  se,  so  much  as  to  narrate  the 
adventures  of  a  great  hero  of  his,  Sir  William  Phipps, 
whose  fortune  and  fame  were  based  upon  this  expedition. 
As  an  account  by  a  contemporary,  this  narrative  telling 
how  the  "  Phipps'  fortune  "  was  made,  is  exceedingly 
valuable  as  well  as  interesting,  and  especially  in  connec- 
tion with  the  investigation  now  under  way  for  the  re- 
covery of  treasure  that  is  supposed  to  have  been  left 
behind  after  Sir  William's  search  in  1683. 

"The  subject  of  this  sketch,"  says  Mather,  writing  a 
few  years  after  he  had  relinquished  his  fanatical  pursuit 
of  the  witches  of  Salem,  "  was  born  February  2,  1650, 
at  a  despicable  plantation  on  the  River  Kennebec  and 
almost  the  furthest  village  of  the  eastern  settlement  of 
New  England.  .  .  .  His  mother  had  no  less  than 
twenty-six  children,  whereof  twenty-one  were  sons ;  but 
equivalent  to  them  all  was  William,  one  of  the  youngest, 
who  lived  with  his  mother,  his  father  dying,  until  he  was 
eighteen  years  old.  .  .  .  He  then  betook  himself  a 
hundred  and  fifty  miles  afield,  even  to  Boston,  the  chief 
town  of  New  England,  where  he  learned,  first  of  all,  to 
read  and  write,  followed  the  trade  of  ship  carpenter  for 
about  a  year,  and  by  a  laudable  deportment  he  so  recom- 
mended himself  that  he  married  a  young  gentlewoman 
of  good  repute,  who  was  the  widow  of  one  Mr.  John 
Hull.  .  .  .  And  he  would  frequently  tell  the  gentle- 
woman, his  wife,  that  he  would  yet  be  Captain  of  a  King's 
ship ;  that  he  would  come  to  have  the  command  of  better 
men  than  he  was  now  accounted ;  and  that  this  would  not 
be  all  that  the  Providence  of  God  would  bring  him  to; 


200       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

that  indeed  he  should  be  the  owner  of  a  fair  brick  house 
in  the  Green  Lane  of  North  Boston,  etc.     .     .     . 

"  Being  thus  of  the  true  temper  for  the  doing  of  great 
things  and  upon  the  advice  received  of  a  Spanish  wreck 
about  the  Bahamas  (said  to  have  been  given  him  by  a 
smuggler),  he  took  a  voyage  thither,  but  with  little  more 
success  than  what  just  served  to  furnish  him  for  a  voy- 
age to  England,  whither  he  went  in  a  vessel  not  much 
unlike  that  which  the  Dutchmen  stamped  on  their  first 
coins,  with  these  words  about  it :  '  None  can  tell  where 
Fate  will  bear  me.'     .     .     . 

"  Having  first  informed  himself  that  there  was  another 
Spanish  wreck,  wherein  was  lost  a  mighty  treasure  hith- 
erto undiscovered,  he  had  a  strong  impression  upon  his 
mind  that  he  must  be  its  discoverer,  and  he  made  such 
representations  at  White  Hall  that  by  the  year  1683  he 
truly  became  the  captain  of  a  King's  ship,  the  '  Algier 
Rose,'  a  frigot  of  eighteen  guns  and  ninety-five  men. 
.  .  .  In  her  he  sailed  to  Jamaica,  and  thence  to  His- 
paniola,  where,  by  the  policy  of  his  address,  he  fished 
out  of  a  very  old  Spaniard  a  little  advice  about  the  true 
spot  where  lay  the  wreck  which  he  had  been  hitherto 
seeking:  that  it  was  upon  a  reef  of  shoals  a  few  leagues 
to  the  northward  of  Port  de  la  Plata  [Puerto  Plata]  in 
Hispaniola,  a  port  so  called,  it  seems,  from  the  landing 
of  a  shipwrecked  company  with  a  boatload  of  plate,  saved 
out  of  a  sinking  frigot.  .  .  .  Nevertheless,  he  had  to 
return  to  England  [more  likely  to  Jamaica]  where  at 
length  he  prevailed  upon  the  Duke  of  Albemarle  and 
some  other  persons  of  quality  to  fit  him  out  again,  and 
then  set  sail  a  second  time  for  the  fishing  ground  that 
had  been  so  well  baited  half  a  hundred  years  be- 
fore. 


L*.  UU  lAI 


TREASURES  IN  SEA  AND  SOIL         201 

"  Arriving  with  a  ship  and  tender  at  Port  de  la  Plata, 
the  divers  were  sent  to  explore  the  '  Boilers,'  as  the  reefs 
of  shoals  were  called,  but  they  discovered  nothing.  At 
last,  when  about  to  return  empty-handed  and  despondent, 
one  of  the  divers  was  sent  down  to  bring  up  a  sea 
feather,  which  was  espfed  attached  to  a  rock;  and  he 
also  brought  up  a  surprising  story,  to  wit,  that  he  had 
seen  great  guns  in  the  water  world  below,  the  report  of 
which  great  guns  [Mr.  Mather's  pun]  exceedingly  as- 
tonished the  whole  company,  who  were  at  last  assured 
that  they  had  lit  upon  the  true  spot  of  ground  which  they 
had  been  looking  for;  and  they  were  further  confirmed 
in  these  assurances  when,  upon  further  diving,  the  Indian 
fetched  up  a  '  sow  ' — as  they  styled  it — or  a  lump  of  sil- 
ver, worth  perhaps  two  or  three  hundred  pounds.  Upon 
this  they  prudently  buoyed  the  place,  that  they  might 
readily  find  it  again,  and  then  went  back  unto  their  cap- 
tain, whom  for  a  while  they  distressed  wit4i  bad  news, 
nothing  but  bad  news;  nevertheless,  they  so  slipped  the 
sow  of  silver  on  one  side  under  the  table  that  when  he 
should  look  that  way  he  naight  see  that  odd  thing  before 
him.  At  last  he  saw  it  and  he  cried  out  with  some 
agony:  *  Why,  what  is  this?  Whence  comes  this?  '  And 
then,  with  changed  countenances,  they  told  him  how  and 
where  they  got  it.  '  Then,'  said  he,  '  thanks  be  to  God, 
we  are  made!  ' 

"  And  so  away  they  went,  all  hands  to  work;  and  most 
happily  they  fell  upon  that  room  in  the  wreck  where  the 
bullion  was  stored  up;  and  they  so  prospered  in  their 
new  fishery  that  in  a  little  while  they  had,  without  the 
loss  of  any  man's  life,  brought  up  thirty-two  tuns  of  sil- 
ver; for  it  was  now  come  to  measuring  silver  by  tuns! 
Besides  which,  one  Adderly  of  Providence  [Bahamas], 


202        OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

who  had  formerly  been  very  helpful  to  Capt.  Phipps 
in  the  search  for  this  wreck,  did  meet  him  now  with  a 
little  vessel,  and  with  his  few  hands  took  up  about  six 
tuns  more. 

"  Thus  did  there  come  into  the  light  of  the  sun  a 
treasure  which  had  been  half  a  hundred  years  groaning 
under  the  water;  and  in  this  time  there  was  grown  upon 
the  plate  a  crust  like  limestone,  which  crust  being  broke 
open,  they  knocked  out  whole  bushels  of  rusty  pieces-of- 
eight,  which  were  grown  thereinto. 

''  Thus  did  they  continue  fishing  till,  their  provisions 
failing  them,  'twas  time  to  be  gone.  And  it  was  remark- 
able that  thoi5gh  the  '  sows  '  came  up  still  so  fast  that  on 
the  last  day  of  their  being  there  they  took  up  twenty,  yet 
it  was  afterwards  found  that  they  had  in  a  measure 
wholly  cleared  that  room  of  the  ship  where  those  massy 
things  were  stored. 

"But  there^was  one  extraordinary  distress  which  Capt. 
Phipps  now  found  himself  plunged  into;  for  his  men 
were  come  out  with  him  upon  seamen's  wages  at  so  much 
per  month;  and  when  they  saw  such  vast  litters  of  silver 
sows  and  pigs  come  on  board  at  their  captain's  call,  they 
knew  not  how  to  bear  it,  that  they  should  not  share  all 
among  themselves,  and  be  gone  to  lead  a  '  short  life  and 
a  merry  one,'  in  a  climate  where  it  was  so  delightful  to 
live.  But  still,  keeping  a  most  careful  eye  upon  them, 
he  hastened  back  to  England  [first  to  Port  Royal,  Ja- 
maica, in  all  probability],  though  he  left  so  much  behind 
that  many  from  divers  parts  made  very  considerable 
voyages  of  gleanings,  after  his  harvest." 

From  reading  this  involved  marrative,  it  might  be  in- 
ferred that  Capt.  Phipps  very  thoroughly  ransacked  the 
sunken  wreck  oflf  the  reefs  of  Puerto  Plata;  but  there  is 


TREASURES  IN  SEA  AND  SOIL         203 

no  evidence  that  he  found  and  searched  more  than  a 
single  galleon,  while  the  Spanish  records  show,  it  is  said, 
that  a  whole  fleet  was  sunk. 

No  doubt  can  attach  to  the  authenticity  of  the  Mather 
narrative  of  Capt.  Phipps's  wonderful  voyage;  but  if 
additional  evidence  were  desired,  it  could  be  adduced 
from  a  history  of  Jamaica  written  more  than  a  hundred 
years  ago,  in  which  is  given  a  curious  sequel  to  the 
adventure.  In  the  year  1687,  it  says,  Christopher,  Duke 
of  Albemarle,  was  appointed  Governor  of  Jamaica. 
"  This  hobleman  was  the  only  son  and  heir  of  Gen.  Monk, 
who  had  restored  Charles  II.  Brought  to  beggary  by 
vice  and  extravagance,  he  was  reduced  to  the  necessity 
of  imploring  bread  from  James  I.,  and  the  king  sent  him 
to  Jamaica,  where  he  died  soon  after  his  arrival.  He 
lived  long  enough,  however,  to  collect  a  considerable 
sum  of  money  for  his  creditors,  for,  entering  into  part- 
nership with  Sir  William  Phipps,  who  had  discovered 
the  wreck  of  a  Spanish  plate  ship,  he  was  greatly  en- 
riched. 

"  On  the  death  of  the  Duke,  his  coadjutors  in  the  div- 
ing business,  many  of  whom  were  buccaneers,  complained 
that  they  had  not  received  their  full  share  of  the  prize 
money,  and  her  Grace,  the  Duchess,  who  had  got  posses- 
sion of  the  treasure,  refusing  to  part  with  a'shilling,  they 
formed  a  scheme  to  seize  her  person  in  the  King's  House 
at  Spanish  Town  and  carry  her  ofif.  Luckily  she  re- 
ceived some  intimation  of  the  plot  and  communicated  her 
apprehensions  to  the  House  of  Assembly,  who  thereupon 
formed  a  committee  of  their  ablest  members  to  guard  her 
day  and  night  until  she  safely  embarked  in  one  of  the 
King's  ships  for  England. 

'•  She  arrived  home  with  all  her  treasure,  at  the  be- 


204        OUR  WEST   INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

ginning  of  June,  1688;  but  some  years  afterward  fell 
into  a  state  of  imbecility,  in  the  progress  of  which  she 
pleased  herself  with  the  notion  that  the  Emperor  of 
China,  having  heard  of  her  immense  riches,  was  coming 
to  pay  her  his  addresses.  She  even  made  magnificent 
preparations  for  his  reception. 

"  As  she  was  perfectly  gentle  and  good-humored  in 
her  lunacy,  her  attendants  not  only  encouraged  her  in  the 
folly,  but  contrived  to  turn  it  to  good  account  by  per- 
suading a  needy  peer,  the  first  Duke  of  Montague,  to 
personate  his  Chinese  majesty,  and  deceive  her  into  wed- 
lock, which  he  actually  did;  and  with  greater  success 
than  honesty  by  this  means  got  possession  of  her  wealth 
and  then  confined  her  as  a  lunatic. 

"  Cibber,  the  comedian,  who  thought  the  circumstance 
a  good  jest,  introduced  it  on  the  stage,  and  it  formed  a 
scene  in  his  play  called  '  The  Sick  Lady  Cured.'  Though 
her  Grace  survived  her  husband,  the  pretended  Emperor, 
for  many  years,  dying  at  last  in  1734  at  the  age  of  ninety- 
eight,  her  frenzy  remained  to  the  last,  and  to  the  day  of 
her  death  she  was  served  on  bended  knee  as  the  empress 
of  China." 

Puerto  Plata  is  the  chief  seaport  of  the  north  coast, 
and  the  brightest,  most  cleanly  and  most  progressive  of 
any  town  in  the  island.  It  derives  its  name  from  the  time 
of  Columbus,  who  called  it  the  Port  of  the  Silver  Moun- 
tain, the  beautiful  elevation  behind  it  being  frequently 
capped  by  a  wreath  of  silver  clouds. 

As  a  railroad  connects  the  port  with  Santiago,  and  the 
adjacent  country  is  rich,  picturesque,  and  healthful,  it  is 
likely  that  Puerto  Plata  will  become  an  attractive  resi- 
dential region,  should-  peace  ever  prevail  in  Santo  Do- 
mingo.   There  is  a  good  landing-place  in  the  shape  of  a 


TREASURES   IN   SEA  AND   SOIL        205 

jetty  thrust  out  from  the  shore;  but  as  the  water  is  shal- 
low, the  interesting  sight  is  afforded  of  native  ox-carts 
floating  in  the  harbor,  with  the  oxen  attached  wading 
about  with  the  w^ater  up  to  their  noses. 

The  harbor  is  small  but  deep,  serving  well  for  coast- 
wise commerce,  but  hardly  sufficing  for  large  steamers. 
The  best  harbor  in  Santo  Domingo  lies  about  a  night's 
run  to  the  southeast  of  Puerto  Plata.  This  is  its  great 
natural  basin  and  glorious  harbor,  Samana  Bay. 

The  real  harbor  of  the  great  bay  of  Arrows  lies  five 
or  six  miles  within  the  gulf,  and,  together  with  the  town 
adjacent,  is  known  as  Santa  Barbara.  A  series  of  small 
cays  lies  opposite  town  and  harbor,  between  the  islets 
and  the  main,  being  a  perfect  cul-de-sac,  with  deep  water 
close  to  shore.  Steep,  cultivated  hills  rise  directly  from 
the  shore,  with  offshoots  offering  choice  sites  for  dwell- 
ings; the  lateral  valleys  are  fertile  and  filled  with  every 
tropical  product,  the  beaches  are  smooth  and  fringed  with 
palms,  the  bay  within  the  reefs  delightful  for  bathing, 
boating,  and  fishing. 

The  Samana  peninsula  is  about  forty  miles  in  length, 
and  consists  of  a  range  of  hills  thrust  right  out  into  the 
ocean  to  the  north  of  the  bay.  These  hills,  swept  by  cool 
breezes,  covered  with  tropical  vegetation,  and  with  their, 
feet  on  either  side  plunged  into  the  sea,  offer  desirable 
sites  for  farms  and  winter  settlements. 

About  sixty  years  ago  a  colony  of  blacks  was  settled 
here  from  the  States,  and  the  American  traveler  will  have 
the  pleasure  of  hearing  his  own  language  spoken,  instead 
of  Spanish,  which  prevails  elsewhere  in  the  island.  These 
black  people  have  held  their  own,  have  built  schools  and 
churches,  and  have  set  a  good  example  of  thrift  and  so- 
briety to  the  shiftless  natives.       They  were,  President 


2o6       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

Heureaux  once  told  me,  the  most  reliable  and  peaceful 
of  his  subjects.  That  is,  they  did  not  aspire  to  furnish 
a  presidential  possibility  every  few  months,  like  their 
neighbors,  and  had  no  political  ambitions  likely  to  prove 
disastrous  to  himself. 

At  the  head  of  the  bay  is  the  straggling  settlement  of 
Sanchez,  hardly  more  than  a  streak  of  buildings  showing 
against  a  background  of  forest-covered  hills.  The  bay  is 
shallow  here,  but  great  importance  attaches  to  Sanchez, 
on  account  of  its  being  the  coast  terminus  of  the 
longest  railroad  in  the  island.  This  road  is  between 
sixty  and  seventy  miles  in  length,  and  extends  to  the 
town  of  Concepcion  de  la  Vega,  but  was  projected  to 
unite  the  bay  with  the  important  city  of  Santiago  de  los 
Caballeros,  and  perhaps  with  Monte  Cristi. 

So  far  as  its  natural  features  are  concerned,  this  Vega 
Real  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  regions  in  the  world, 
the  soil  is  fertile,  and  the  productions  limited  only  by  the  ■ 
labor  of  the  inhabitants.  Unfortunately  the  natives  are 
lazy  and  shiftless,  working  only  for  the  satisfaction  of 
their  present  needs;  their  dwellings  are  mere  huts  of 
straw  and  slabs  of  palm  bark,  without  windows  and 
floors,  except  for  holes  closed  at  night  with  boards,  and 
mud  hardened  by  the  passing  of  feet. 

The  Samana  Bay  country  came  within  an  ace  of  being 
annexed  to  the  United  States,  during  President  Grant's 
administration,  as  "  old-timers "  may  recall,  for,  after 
commissioners  had  been  sent  out  to  inquire  into  the  con- 
dition of  things  and  the  desires  of  the  Dominicans,  a  con- 
vention for  a  treaty  of  annexation  was  entered  into ;  but 
the  Senate  rejected  the  treaty  by  a  tie  vote,  June  30,  1870. 
It  has  always  attracted  the  attention  of  enterprising 
Americans,  and  there  are  several  nuclei  for  colonies  along 


TREASURES  IN  SEA  AND  SOIL         207 

the  shores  of  the  beautiful  bay,  one  of  them,  on  the  south 
shore,  at  Savana  la  Mar,  being  finely  situated  and  flour- 
ishing. 

The  great  peninsula  extending  eastward  from  a  line 
drawn  due  north  and  south  between  the  head  of  Samana 
Bay  and  Santo  Domingo  City  contains  vast  and  fertile 
regions  almost  as  little  developed  as  during  the  times  of 
the  aborigines.  Here  dwelt  the  Higueyans,  among  whom 
was  settled  for  a  period  stout  old  Ponce  de  Leon,  the 
conqueror  of  Puerto  Rico.  Along  the  south  coast  of  the 
islands,  as  at  Macoris  and  Azua,  are  extensive  sugar  plan- 
tations, some  of  which  are  very  remunerative,  needing 
only  protracted  peace  and  capital  to  become  as  profitable 
to  their  owners  as  the  ingcnios  of  Cuba — provided,  of 
course,  they  could  receive  as  fair  treatment  from  the 
United  States  in  the  way  of  reciprocal  duties  as  Cuba  is 
receiving  to-day. 

The  region  for  agricultural  development  lies  adjacent 
to  the  coast,  and  in  the  rich  valleys  of  the  Yuna,  and  of 
the  Yaqui,  north  and  soufh.  That  for  exploitation  with 
a  view  to  unearthing  gold  and  other  minerals,  is  the  Cor- 
dillera country  of  the  interior. 

It  was  in  Santo  Domingo,  really,  that  the  first  gold  was 
discovered  by  white  men  in  America,  for,  though  Colum- 
bus had  seen  gold  in  the  Bahamas  and  in  Cuba  in  the 
shape  of  nose  and  ear  ornaments  worn  by  the  natives,  the 
latter  always  pointed  to  Haiti  or  Santo  Domingo  as  the 
home  of  the  precious  product.  When  he  arrived  ofif  the 
coast  of  Haiti,  in  December,  1492,  he  was  given  a  great 
deal  of  dust  and  some  nuggets,  and  when  he  finally 
reached  the  bay  of  the  present  Cape  Haitien  he  found 
himself  on  the  threshold  of  the  golden  country,  the 
'*  Cibao  "  of  the  Indians. 


2o8        OUR  WEST   INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

I  once  saw  a  handful  of  fine  nuggets,  obtained  from 
near  the  head  waters  of  the  Cibao,  by  washing  with  the 
primitive  apparatus  consisting  merely  of  a  wooden  dish 
and  a  calabash.  The  largest  of  these  nuggets  weighed 
five  ounces;  I  bought  one  weighing  half  an  ounce,  and 
have  heard  of  lumps  eight  ounces  in  weight.  This  gold 
is  remarkably  fine  and  sells  in  London  and  Hamburg  for 
about  $20  per  ounce.  It  is  thought  to  be  derived  from 
placer  washings  of  unknown  deposits  in  the  distant 
mountains ;  but  no  one  seems  to  have  visited  the  original 
sotrrce,  which  is  still  a  mystery.  Before  me,  as  I  write 
these  lines,  lie  some  grains  of  gold  from  the  Cibao  reigon, 
which  I  obtained  at  Yanico,  where  the  second  Spanish 
fort  was  erected  four  hundred  years  ago. 


XIII 
AMERICA'S  OLDEST  CITY 

A  reproach  to  Americans  —  The  first  Spanish  colony  in  America 

—  Cokimbus  an  explorer,  not  a  colonizer  —  His  brother,  the 
Adelantado  —  How  gold  was  discovered  in  Santo  Domingo 

—  The  city  founded  on  Ozama  River's  banks  —  Why  it  was 
named  "Santo  Domingo"  —  The  disastrous  hurricane  of 
1502  —  A  mediaeval  city  wall  —  House  where  Diego  Columbus 
lived  —  Where  lords  and  ladies  held  their  court  —  The 
Columbus  tower,  date  1509  —  The  old  historian's  description 

—  Ruins  within  the  battlemented  walls  —  The  old  monastery, 
mint,  convents,  and  churches  of  the  sixteenth  century  —  Our 
oldest  university  —  The  cathedral  and  its  precious  relics  — 
Last  resting-place  of  Christopher  Columbus  —  A  cannon-ball 
fired  from  a  ship  in  the  fleet  of  Sir  Francis  Drake. 

YOU  may  search  vainly,  far  and  wide,  for  a  more 
interesting  place  than  America's  oldest  city, 
Santo  Domingo,  capital  of  the  island  of  the 
same  name,  in  the  West  Indies.  Notwithstanding  its 
antiquity,  it  has  been  shrouded  in  such  obscurity,  of 
late,  that  there  may  be  those  who  will  deny  its  claim 
to  the  title  I  have  given  it.  It  is  often  flung  at 
Americans,  as  a  reproach,  that  they  have  no  ruins  of  con- 
sequence within  the  confines  of  their  country ;  but,  if  it 
be  true  that  they  have  no  historic  structures  with  dis- 
mantled towers  to  show  as  evidence  of  ancestral  great- 
ness, the  continent  at  large  can  boast  some  wonderful 
groups  of  ruins  in  Mexico  and  Central  America,  where 
indubitable  evidence  exists  of  a  former  civilization  that 

209 


2IO       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

will  compare  favorably,  so  far  as  its  architecture  goes, 
with  any  the  world  can  show,  in  Europe  or  the  Orient. 

Still,  Palenque,  Uxmal,  Chichen  Itza,  and  Copan  are 
silent  cities;  their  origin,  their  builders,  shrouded  in  the 
mists  of  antiquity.  The  fact  remains  that  Santo  Do- 
mingo is  America's  oldest  city,  that  is,  of  European  foun- 
dation, and  continuously  occupied  since  its  first  stone  was 
laid  in  place.  One  Spanish  settlement,  only,  antedates  it: 
Isabella,  on  the  north  coast  of  the  island,  originally  called 
by  Columbus  "  Hispaniola,"  and  since  named  after  the 
city  in  question,  Santo  Domingo.  After  Christopher  Co- 
lunibus  had  first  landed  there,  in  the  part  known  to  the 
natives  as  Haiti,  and  had  sailed  the  length  of  it,  he  re- 
turned to  Spain.  This  was  on  his  first  voyage  to  the 
New  World,  in  1492-93.  On  his  second  voyage  he  sailed 
a  more  southerly  course,  at  first,  but  eventually  returned 
to  his  point  of  departure,  and  on  the  north  coast  of  His- 
paniola laid  the  foundations  for  a  settlement  which  he 
called  Isabella,  after  the  Queen  of  Spain,  his  royal 
patroness.  Having  established  there  the  nucleus  of  a 
colony,  he  sailed  away  on  other  voyages;  for  first  of  all 
Columbus  was  an  explorer,  a  discoverer;  never  a  colo- 
nizer. Having  discovered  a  new  world,  he  left  the  little 
details  of  its  colonization  and  conquest  to  others,  pressing 
on  eagerly  in  search  of  other  countries  then  unknown. 

However,  the  site  of  Isabella  was  unhealthy;  it  was 
situated  at  a  distance  from  the  rich  gold  region  of  the 
interior;  and  the  upshot  of  it  all  was  that,  some  three 
years  after  its  settlement,  while  Christopher  was  away  on 
one  of  his  numerous  voyages  of  discovery,  his  brother 
Bartholomew,  who  had  been  made  '*  adelantado  "  of  the 
island  and  left  in  sole  charge  of  its  conquest,  abandoned 
the  place  entirely. 


AMERICA'S  OLDEST  CITY  ^n 

The  Adelantado  sent  out  exploring  parties  in  search  of 
a  more  advantageous  site  for  a  colony  than  Isabella;  but 
what  he  sought  was  really  found  by  accident.  The  fu- 
ture capital  of  Hispaniola,  in  fact,  w^as  founded  on  a 
romance.  It  owes  its  origin  to  the  adventures  of  a  Span- 
ish soldier,  one  of  Don  Bartholomew's  men,  who,  having 
wounded  one  of  his  comrades  in  a  fight  at  Isabella,  and 
fearing  punishment,  deserted.  He  wandered  through  the 
interior  forests  and  over  the  central  mountain  chain, 
finally  reaching  the  headwaters  of  the  river  Ozania,  which 
has  its  outlet  on  the  south  coast  of  the  island.  The 
Indians  north  of  the  mountains  had  already  been  sub- 
jugated, having  lost  thousands  in  the  great  fight  the  year 
previous  when  Columbus  had  led  his  forces  against  them  ; 
but  those  to  the  southward  of  the  cordillera  were  as  yet 
unconquered.  Still,  tales  of  Spanish  prowess  had  pene- 
trated to  every  portion  of  the  island,  inasmuch  as  a  mail- 
clad  warrior  might  have  wandered  all  over  it  without 
meeting  with  opposition  from  the  Indians.  So  it  fell  out 
that  when  this  common  soldier,  this  fugitive,  Miguel 
Diaz,  appeared  among  the  Indians  residing  on  the  Oza- 
ma,  he  was  received  with  open  arms.  It  happened  that 
these  people  were  ruled  over  by  a  female  cacique,  who 
was  captivated  by  the  .gallant  figure  cut  by  the  soldier  in 
armor,  and  promptly  surrendered  her  heart  and  fortune 
to  his  keeping.  Thus  the  Spanish  soldier  became  cacique, 
or  head  man  of  the  tribe,  and  found  himself  lacking  for 
nothing  which  the  heart  of  aboriginal  man  could  desire. 

Still,  as  time  wore  away  he  yearned  for  the  former 
comradeship, — such  is  the  perversity  of  man,  always 
wanting  something  he  has  not,  or  once  did  have, — and 
his  queen  perceiving  him  distrait,  soon  wormed  his  secret 
from  him.     Being  in  love  with  the  soldier,  she  did  not 


212       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

wish  to  have  him  leave  her;  but,  being  in  love  with  the 
soldier,  she  wished  to  gratify  his  desires.  So,  when  he 
informed  her  that  he  could  return  to  Isabella  for  a  short 
visit,  provided  he  might  take  with  him  a  gift  of  gold  to 
his  commander,  and  that  having  made  his  peace  with  Don 
Bartholomew  he  would  quickly  return  to  her,  his  "  first 
and  only  love,"  she  told  him  of  great  store  of  precious 
metal  which  the  earth   contained,   within  her  province. 

And  what  is  more,  she  took  him  to  the  mines  and  her 
people  dug  out  a  backload  of  gold,  which  he  lost  no  time 
in  conveying  to  Isabella,  where  he  related  such  a  wonder- 
ful story  that  the  Adelantado  not  only  forgave  him  his 
offense,  but  promoted  him  on  the  spot.  He  also  accepted 
his  offer  to  guide  him  to  the  rich  deposits  of  gold,  which 
impressed  him  so  favorably  that  he  returned  to  Isabella 
and  lading  all  the  movable  property  there  aboard  ship 
sailed  around  to  the  south  coast,  where  he  practically 
founded  a  settlement  by  erecting  a  fort  on  the  east  bank 
of  the  Ozama.  The  fort  was  the  fourth  of  the  kind 
erected  in  the  island,  and  consequently  in  the  West 
Indies ;  but  the  settlement  was  the  second ;  and  as  Isabella 
soon  went  to  ruin,  and  has  never  been  inhabited  since  the 
Adelantado  abandoned  it,  Santo  Domingo  (as  stated  at 
the  beginning  of  this  chapter)  has  the  honor  of  being  the 
oldest  existing  city   settled  by   white  men   in  America. 

Don  Bartholomew  named  his  settlement  after  good 
Saint  Dominic,  who  was  a  native  of  Spain;  and  inci- 
dentally honored  his  father,  Dominico  Columbus,  the 
humble  citizen  of  Genoa.  Christopher  Columbus  ap- 
proved of  all  his  brother  had  done,  especially  the  peculiar 
honor  to  their  father. 

After  enduring  the  various  vicissitudes  of  a  tropical 
settlement  for  six  years,  the  new  town  on  the  east  bank 


AMERICA'S    OLDEST    CITY  213 

of  the  Ozania  was  first  attacked  by  an  army  of  ants,  and 
then  swept  nearly  out  of  existence  by  a  hurricane,  so  the 
survivi)rs  removed  to  the  west  bank  of  the  river,  where 
the  foundations  were  laid  for  the  city  which  actually 
exists  to-day.  But  it  was  while  the  Spaniards  were  in 
possession  of  the  town  on  the  east  bank  that  a  scene  was 
enacted  which  has  become  historic,  namely,  the  arrest  of 
Columbus  by  his  successor  in  the  government,  Bobadilla, 
and  the  sending  of  the  King  of  Spain's  "  Admiral  of  the 
Ocean  Sea  "  to  the  mother-country  in  chains.  The  walls 
of  a  chapel  still  stand  on  the  east  bank,  from  the  doorway 
of  which  the  arrogant  Bobadilla  caused  the  royal  procla- 
mation of  his  authority  to  be  read;  but  of  the  fort  in 
which  by  his  orders  Columbus  was  confined  with  fettered 
limbs,  a  few  bricks  and  stones  alone  remain,  near  the 
bay  at  the  mouth  of  the  river. 

Yes,  here  it  was  that  Columbus  received  the  first  check 
to  his  career  of  conquest,  here  began  the  long  series  of 
misfortunes  that  ended  only  at  his  death.  From  this 
harbor  of  Santo  Domingo,  in  the  year  1500,  he  sailed 
back  to  Spain  with  manacles  on  wrists  and  ankles.  Two 
years  later,  having  equipped  another  expedition,  he  was 
denied  admission  to  the  harbor  by  Governor  Ovando, 
though  he  applied  on  the  eve  of  a  disastrous  hurricane 
from  which  he  craved  shelter  and  which  he  escaped  by 
seeking  a  haven  further  down  the  coast.  His  little  fleet 
survived  the  hurricane ;  but  all  the  vessels  save  one  com- 
posing the  fleet  then  about  to  sail  for  Spain  with  the  re- 
turning governor,  Bobadilla,  went  down  before  the 
cyclone,  carrying  among  others  his  arch-enemy  to  a 
watery  grave. 

Columbus  was  indeed  avenged  on  Bobadilla;  but  the 
atrocious  Ovando  survived,  to  become  the  exterminator 


214       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

of  the  Indians,  and  to  bestow  a  reluctant  welcome  upon 
the  Admiral  when  rescued  from  the  perils  of  the  terrible 
Jamaica  voyage,  in  1504.  This  was  the -year  in  which  he 
sailed  across  the  Atlantic  for  the  last  time — that  in  which 
Queen  Isabella  died — and  only  two  years  before  he  him- 
self passed  away. 

Shall  we  not  hold  these  memories  interesting,  and 
should  we  not  accord  to  this  old  city  on  the  Ozama's 
banks  a  place  apart  and  high,  from  its  association  with 
one  who — whatever  his  shortcomings — must  be  accred- 
ited with  the  "discovery"  of  America? 

The  settlers  removed  to  the  west  bank  the  year  of  the 
great  hurricane,  1502,  and  in  course  of  time  a  massive 
wall  was  built,  landward  from  the  river  and  the  sea,  en- 
hancing the  strategic  advantages  of  a  position  naturally 
very  strong.  This  wall  remains  to-day,  though  four 
hundred  years  have  passed  since  it  was  built,  with  mediae- 
val barbacans,  fortalezas,  projecting  sentry-boxes,  and 
a  gateway  loopholed  and  battlemented.  A  plan  of  the 
city  made  in  the  first  decade  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
shows  this  wall  intact,  also  the  old  settlement  on  the  op- 
posite bank  of  the  river,  with  the  "  Torrecilla  de  Colon," 
or  tower  in  which  Columbus  was  imprisoned,  standing 
near  the  sea,  adjacent  to  It  the  gallows  tree  with  its 
human  fruit,  without  which  no  Spanish  settlement  of 
those  times  was  considered  complete.  In  fact,  it  was  one 
of  the  charges  brought  against  Columbus  when  Bobadilla 
was  sent  out  to  supersede  him,  that  he  always  had  some 
one  of  his  enemies  hanging  on  the  gallows.  In  this  re- 
spect, however,  he  diflPered  little  from  the  other  colonists 
of  Santo  Domingo,  who  when  they  had  authority  hanged 
and  quartered  without  mercy  or  restraint. 

Above  the  wall  around  the  city  rises,  from  the  river's 


AMERICA'S    OLDEST    CITY.  215 

steep  bank,  an  ancient  castle  called  the  Homenage, 
which,  though  the  local  traditioner  will  tell  you  that 
Columbus  was  once  a  prisoner  within  its  walls,  was  not, 
in  fact,  erected  until  about  the  year  1509,  when  this  ill- 
used  individual  had  been  three  years  dead.  However, 
it  is  interesting  enough  of  itself,  without  being  bolstered 
up  by  factitious  traditions;  architecturally  a  gem,  his- 
torically a  nonpareil,  for  it  is  indeed  the  oldest  structure 
of  its  kind  in  America.  The  same  year  it  was  erected, 
Don  Diego  Colon,  son  of  Columbus,  having  at  last  come 
into  the  rights  for  which  he  fought  so  pertinaciously, 
came  to  Santo  Domingo  as  viceroy,  bringing  a  lovely 
bride,  Doiia  Maria  de  Toledo,  allied  to  an  ancient  and 
powerful  house,  and  with  a  splendid  train  of  lords  and 
ladies  from  the  Spanish  court. 

It  was  the  most  glorious  assemblage  that  the  New 
World  had  then  looked  upon ;  and  in  sooth,  poor  old 
Santo  Domingo  has  never  looked  upon  its  like  since  then. 
For  the  fortunes  of  city  and  island  were  then  in  apogee, 
the  planters  and  merchants,  .the  gold-seekers  and  the 
sailors,  all,  were  in  high  feather,  and  it  was  widely  ru- 
mored that  the  ladies  of  Don  Diego's  vice-regal  court  had 
all  come  out  with  a  purpose,  that  purpose  being  to  ac- 
quire rich  husbands, — and  none  was  disappointed.  That 
is,  no  fair  lady  was  disappointed  in  the  getting  of  a 
wealthy  husband ;  but  as  to  the  qualifications  of  those  men 
who  lorded  it  over  ''  encomiendas "  of  servile  Indians, 
perhaps  the  less  said  the  better. 

Still,  the  fact  remains  that  Don  Diego  brought  with 
him  an  elegant  court,  with  gallant  knights  and  maids  of 
high  degree;  and  another  fact  is  incontestable,  namely, 
that  he  caused  to  be  built  a  beautiful  palace,  facing  the 
harbor,  midv/ay  between  the  river  and  the  landward  wall, 


5i6       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

and  connecting  the  two  by  means  of  massive  fortifica- 
tions. So  far  did  he  carry  his  defensive  schemes,  in  fact, 
that  his  enemies  later  informed  his  sovereign  that  he  . 
meditated  intrenching  himself  within  this  fortified  palace 
and  defying  his  King's  authority.  But  that  is  a  little 
story  aside ;  we  are  concerned  only  about  his  palace, 
which  he  built  so  as  to  tower  above  all  other  structures 
there,  save  the  grim  Homenage,  and  adorned  with  the 
beauteous  ladies  brought  from  Spain. 

One  of  Don  Diego's  contemporaries,  the  historian, 
Oviedo,  wrote  a  description  of  Santo  Domingo  about  this 
time,  which,  as  translated  and  published  in  black-letter,  in 
the  year  1555,  furnishes  a  quaint  and  probably  authentic 
picture  of  the  place : 

"  To  speak  sumwhat  of  the  principall  and  chiefe  place 
of  the  islande,"  says  the  historian,  "  whiche  is  the  citie  of 
San  Domenico :  I  saye,  that  as  touchynge  the  buildynges 
there  is  no  citie  in  Spaine,  so  muche  for  so-muche,  (no, 
not  Barsalona,  which  I  have  oftentymes  scene)  that  is  to 
bee  preferred  to  this  generallye.  For  the  houses  of  San 
Domenico  are  for  the  moste  parte  of  stone,  as  are  they  of 
Barsalona. 

"  In  the  mydst  of  the  citie  is  the  fortresse  and  castle ; 
the  port  or  haven  also  is  so  fayre  and  commodious  to  de- 
fraight  or  unlade  shyppes,  as  the  like  is  founde  but  in 
fewe  places  in  the  worlde.  The  houses  that  are  in  this 
citie  are  about  syxe  hundredth  in  number,  of  the  whiche 
sum  are  so  fayre  and  large  that  they  may  well  receave 
and  lodge  any  lorde  or  noblemanne  of  Spayne,  with  his 
trayne  and  familie ;  and  especially  that  which  Don  Diego 
Colon,  viceroy  under  your  majestic,  hath  in  this  citie,  is 
such  that  I  knowe  no  man  in  Spayne  that  hath  the  lyke, 
by  a  quarter,  in  goodnesse,  consyderynge  all  the  com- 


\   c   f     \ 
c'     C        t 


■■(If  <        c       '      <: 

, f    f  etc  ' 


AMERICA'S    OLDEST    CITY  217 

modoties  of  the  same.  Lykewyse  the  situation  thereof, 
as  beinge  above  the  sayde  porte,  and  altogether  of  stone, 
and  havynge  many  fine  roomes  and  large,  with  as  goodlie 
a  prospect  of  the  lande  and  sea  as  may  be  dcvysed, 
seemeth  unto  me  so  magnifical  and  prince-lyke  that  your 
majestie  may  bee  as  well  lodged  therein  as  in  any  of  the 
most  exquysite  builded  houses  of  Spayne." 

In  this  letter,  written  by  Oviedo  to  Emperor  Charles  V., 
there  was  doubtless  a  grain  of  malice  toward  Don  Diego 
Colon,  with  his  ''  magnifical  and  prince-lyke  house," 
which  bore  fruit  later,  when  said  Don  Diego  was  sum- 
moned to  Spain  to  answer  for  his  extravagance  and  prob- 
able intentions.  But  here  are  the  ruins  of  that  house, 
some  of  its  walls  still  standing  in  a  good  state  of  preser- 
vation, just  above  the  entrance-way  through  the  city  wall. 
It  is  roofless  now,  this  ancient  Casa  de  Colon,  and 
against  its  gray  stone  walls  lean  the  tottering  shanties, 
palm-thatched  and  squalid,  of  degenerate  Dominicans. 
Its  pillared  corridors  have  long  since  fallen  in,  the  great 
halls  and  banquet  rooms  are  now  partly  filled  with  filth 
and  occupied  as  stables  for  donkeys,  goats,  and  horses. 
But  the  "  goodlie  prospect  of  the  lande  and  sea  "  is  still 
outspread  before  one  so  venturesome  as  to  climb  to  the 
upper  rooms  and  dare  the  noisome  effluvia  arising  from 
the  stables. 

Outside  the  walls,  close  by  the  river,  there  is  a  spring 
known  as  Columbus's  fountain,  and  a  great  ceiba  tree  is 
pointed  out  as  one  beneath  which  the  Admiral  himself 
once  rested.  The  intramural  city  can  boast  more  than  a 
dozen  structures  still  standing  which  date  from  the  vice- 
royal  period.  Largest,  and,  in  some  respects,  most 
fascinating  of  these  is  a  vast  and  vine-draped  pile  entirely 
gone  to  ruin.     It  is  all  that  remains  of  the  first  Franciscan 


2i8        OUR  WEST   INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

monastery  founded  in  the  New  World,  its  corridors 
deserted,  its  cells,  its  chapel,  and  refectory  alike  roofless. 
But  somewhere  here  lie  the  ashes  of  brave  and  gallant 
Bartholomew  Columbus,  once  the  Adelantado,  or  military 
governor,  of  Santo  Domingo ;  and  also  buried  in  some 
obscure  corner  of  the  monastery  chapel,  now  unknown, 
is  another  great-hearted  adventurer,  Alonzo  de  Ojeda. 
Their  exploits  filled  the  world,  at  one  time,  four  centuries 
ago ;  they  did  much  to  achieve  the  conquest  of  the  West 
» Indies;  but  now,  no  one  knows  the  spot  that  holds  their 
dust.  As  a  ruin,  solely,  irrespective  of  its  historical  asso- 
ciations, with  its  picturesque,  vine-draped  walls  and 
cloister-arches,  San  Francisco  is  well  worth  a  visit  and 
inspection,  for  we  have  few  such  in  the  United  States. 
Then  there  are  other  buildings  of  equal  antiquity,  such 
as  the  casa  de  moneda,  or  the  king's  mint,  with  a  fine 
fa(;ade ;  the  convent-church  of  San  Nicolas,  founded  in 
1509,  with  a  beautiful  groined  canopy  over  its  presbytery; 
the  quaint  and  original  church  of  Santa  Barbara,  on  a  hill 
in  an  angle  of  the  river-wall ;  and  San  Miguel,  near  by, 
which  was  built  by  the  king's  treasurer  three  hundred  and 
eighty  years  ago ;  handsome  Santa  Clara,  which  has  been 
restored,  and  San  Anton,  a  mere  shell  falling  to  decay. 
But  of  the  ecclesiastical  structures  within  the  walls,  the 
convent-church  of  Santo  Domingo,  dating  frojn  Don 
Diego's  time,  is  locally  the  most  famous  and  possesses  an 
interest  absolutely  unique  because  of  its  associations. 
Should  any  reader  of  mine  ever  visit  Santo  Domingo,  I 
beg  him,  or  her,  to  closely  examine  the  tessellated  pave- 
ment of  the  eastern  transept,  where  may  be  found  a  large 
tombstone  with  a  carved  coat-of-arms,  the  escudo  of  some 
Spanish  grandee  who  died  centuries  agone,  consisting  of 
a  shield  disporting  thirteen  stars,  the  number  and  the 


AMERICA'S  OLDEST  CITY  219 

emblems  of  our  thirteen  original  States;  but  chiseled  in 
that  marble  more  than  two  hundred  years  before  our 
famous  Declaration  of  Independence. 

But  this  old  church,  with  its  serpent-supported  pulpit, 
its  magnificent  nave  and  tombs  of  Spanish  worthies,  has 
an  interest  attaching  to  it  far  beyond  its  own  attractions, 
inasmuch  as  the  same  Dominicans  who  founded  it  at 
about  the  same  time  established  adjacent  the  first  uni- 
versity in  the  New  World.  The  ruins  of  this  university' 
have  been  w^ell-nigh  demolished,  existing  only  in  a  lam-' 
entable  state  of  neglect;  but  they  should  be  sacred  to  all 
lovers  of  learning  for  what  they  represent.  In  the  struc- 
ture once  attached  to  the  church,  and  now  represented  by 
mounds  of  crumbling  stone,  at  one  time  resided  that  fore- 
most man  of  his  age  as  a  philanthropist,  Bartolome  de  las 
Casas.  He  came  here  with  Ovando,  in  1502,  lured  hither, 
perhaps,  by  the  tales  told  by  his  father,  who  was  with 
Columbus  on  his  second  voyage.  After  going  with 
Velasquez  and  Cortes  to  Cuba,  in  151 1,  after  his  dis- 
astrous experiment  at  civilizing  the  Indians  of  the  "  Terra 
Firma,"  about  1521,  he  returned  to  Hispaniola  and 
immured  himself  for  years  within  the  walls  of  this  uni- 
versity and  monastery.  Here  he  produced  that  great 
monument  to  learning  and  industry,  or  at  least  began  and 
carried  well  forw^ard  toward  completion,  his  "  History  of 
the  Indies." 

There  is,  indeed,  one  structure  alone  which  would  repay 
all  the  discomforts  of  a  pilgrimage — even  assuming  them 
to  exist — and  that  is  another  sacred  shrine  of  early  Amer- 
ican history,  the  noble  cathedral,  which  was  founded  in 
1 5 14,  and  finished  thirty  years  later.  It  has  been  shaken 
by  earthquakes,  sacked  and  bombarded  by  pirates,  and 
at  times  all  but  abandoned;  yet  its  massive  walls  still 


520        OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

stand,  and  its  roof  of  Spanish  tiles  protects  many  a  holy 
relic.  Exteriorly,  the  cathedral  is  not  impressive,  per- 
haps; but  its  glorious  nave  and  transepts,  with  massive 
pillars  supporting  groined  and  lofty  ceiling;  its  lateral 
"  chapels,"  twelve  in  number,  filled  with  saintly  relics  in 
age  from  two  to  four  centuries,  and  finally,  its  magnificent 
retable  richly  carved  and  gilded,  rising  behind  an  altar 
plated  with  silver,  make  up  for  all  possible  deficiencies  in 
its  superficial  aspect.  One  of  the  most  precious  of  relics 
here,  in  the  estimation  of  the  natives,  is  a  fragment  of  the 
cross  of  La  Vega,  upon  an  arm  of  which  an  angel  once 
descended,  it  is  claimed,  at  the  battle  waged  by  Columbus 
with  the  Indians,  in  1495.  It  is  set  in  gold  and  inclosed 
in  a  silver  casket,  and  is  shown  to  the  faithful  only  once  a 
year.  Then  there  is  the  first  great  cross  set  up  on  the  site 
of  the  cathedral,  in  15 14,  which  is  nine  feet  high,  and  is 
made  of  native  mahogany.  There  are  paintings  here 
ascribed  to  Murillo,  and  portraits  of  the  twelve  apostles, 
whichi  are  probably  the  work  of  Velasquez. 

Reference  having  been  made  to  the  fear  entertained 
by  the  Dominicans  of  English  pirates,  it  should  be 
explained  that  it  was  Sir  Francis  Drake,  the  famous  and 
piratical  adventurer,  of  whom  they  stood  most  in  awe. 
And  with  good  reason,  for  at  various  times  he  assailed 
their  capital  and  sacked  it,  a  memento  of  his  attack  of 
1586  being  still  preserved  in  the  shape  of  a  cannon-ball, 
once  fired  from  his  fleet,  and  which  is  imbedded  in  the 
roof  of  the  cathedral.  That  assault  of  1586  was  unpro- 
voked, as  shown  by  Drake's  own  historian,  who  says : 

"  We  spent  the  early  part  of  the  mornings  in  firing  the 
outmost  houses;  but  they  being  built  very  magnificently 
of  stone,  with  high  loftes,  gave  us  no  small  travell  to  ruin 
them.     And  albeit,  for  divers  days  together,  we  ordeined 


AMERICA'S    OLDEST    CITY  221 

ech  morning  by  daybreak,  until  the  heat  began  at  nine  of 
the  clocke,  that  two  hundred  mariners  did  nought  els  but 
labour  to  fire  and  burn  the  said  houses,  whilst  the 
souldiers  in  like  proportion  stood  forth  for  their  guard, 
yet  did  we  not,  or  could  not,  in  this  time,  consume  so 
much  as  one-third  part  of  the  towne ;  and  so  in  the  end, 
wearied  with  firing,  we  were  contented  to  accept  of  five 
and  twenty  thousand  ducats,  of  five  shillings  and  six- 
pence the  peece  [about  thirty  thousand  dollars]  for  the 
ransome  of  the  rest  of  the  towne." 

Soon  after  this  attack,  Santo  Domingo  fell  into  a 
decline,  and  the  theater  of  action  being  transferred  to 
Cuba,  Mexico,  and  Peru,  it  never  recovered.  To-day  it 
presents  but  a  pitiful  picture  of  its  former  self.  Its  resi- 
dents speak  the  language  of  its  original  settlers ;  but  they 
are  mainly  of  alien,  African  descent,  the  white  people 
being  so  few  that  they  may  be  counted  on  one's  fingers. 

Still,  what  other  city  of  America  can  boast  as  its  one- 
time citizens  a  great  discoverer  like  Columbus ;  a  fifteenth- 
century  humanitarian  like  Las  Casas ;  a  monster  of 
depravity  like  Ovando,  and  a  quartet  of  conquerors  like 
Velasquez,  who  subjugated  Cuba ;  Cortes,  who  conquered 
Mexico;  Balboa,  the  explorer  of  Darien,  discoverer  of 
the  Pacific ;  and  Pizarro,  who  stole  the  treasures  of  Peru  ? 


XIV 

PUERTO  RICO,  SPANISH  AND  AMERICAN 

My  first  glimpse  of  Puerto  Rico  —  The  policeman  with  the  itching 
palm  —  Editorial  amenities  —  West-Indian  newspapers  — 
Descendants  of  Columbus  —  What  our  Government  has  done 
—  Ungrateful  Puerto-Riquefios  —  The  laboring  classes,  who 
do  not  labor  —  The  gibaro  and  his  hut  of  palm  leaves  — 
Inexpensive  living  in  Puerto  Rico  —  Suppose  one  were  to 
adopt  it?  —  Thanksgiving  Day  and  its  observance  in  the 
island  —  What  the  hurricane  did  —  The  natural  resources 
available  —  Birds  and  quadrupeds  of  this  island  —  Temperate 
and  tropical  regions  compared  —  The  population  —  No  stand- 
ard of  morality  —  Possibilities  in  tropical  agriculture  —  There 
is  gold  in  the  mountain  streams  —  History  of  its  discovery  — 
What  Agueynaba  did  to  the  Spaniards. 

IT  is  a  long  look  backward  to  my  first  glimpse  of 
Puerto  Rico,  in  the  winter  of  1879-80,  yet  I  can 
easily  recall  many  incidents  of  my  voyage  around 
that  island,  the  interior  of  which  was  then  a  veritable 
terra  incognita.  I  remember,  for  instance,  that  when 
I  first  entered  the  harbor  of  San  Juan,  on  board 
the  "  Hadji,"  a  British  built  "  tub,"  sailing  under  Amer- 
ican colors,  the  Spanish  customs  official,  who  had  been 
put  aboard  off  the  harbor-entrance,  promptly  stepped  in 
front  of  my  camera  when  I  attempted  to  photograph  the 
Morro  and  the  fortifications. 

He  was,  in  fact,  put  there  for  the  very  purpose  of  pre- 
venting inquisitive  foreigners  from  making,  sketches  or 
photographs  of  the  ancient  walls,  and  it  was  all  I  could 
do  to  preserve  my  property  from  confiscation.     I  had  to 

222 


PUERTO  RICO,  SPANISH,  AMERICAN    223 

promise,  under  oath,  that  I  would  make  no  more  expos- 
ures while  in  Puerto  Rican  ports,  and  was  kept  constantly 
under  surveillance,  not  only  at  San  Juan,  but  at  Ponce, 
and  other  ports  at  which  we  touched. 

I  had  a  belated  revenge,  though,  about  ten  years  later, 
when  I  went  to  the  island  as  the  accredited  representative 
of  our  Government,  and  received  a  special  permit  to 
photograph  from  the  alcalde  municipal  of  the  capital.  It 
was  most  grudgingly  bestowed,  to  be  sure,  and  I  was 
cautioned  not  to  turn  my  camera  toward  those  obsolete 
fortifications.  Still,  I  succeeded  in  securing  some  photo- 
graphs of  the  same ;  but  it  was  only  after  my  friend,  the 
policeman,  who  had  been  detailed  to  guide  and  watch  me, 
had  been  told  to  turn  his  face  the  other  way,  and  hold  his 
hand  behind  him!  He  was  so  much  impressed  with  the 
subsequent  ceremony  that  whenever  I  pitched  my  camera, 
after  that  first  operation,  he  voluntarily  performed  this 
act  of  courtesy,  not  once  only,  but  several  times,  plainly 
showing  that,  like  many  another  Spaniard,  he  was  afflicted 
with  the  disease  known  as  the  ''  itching  palm  "  for  pesos. 
I  had  up  to  that  time  thought  it  peculiar  to  customs 
officials;  but  this  experience  convinced  me  that  it  was 
universally  prevalent. 

I  think  it  is  a  contagious  disease,  also,  for  even  the 
press  of  Peurto  Rico  seemed  inoculated  with  its  virus, 
at  the  time  of  my  second  advent  in  the  island,  I  distinctly 
recall.  The  editors  I  met  often  reminded  me  of  my  friend, 
the  policeman — they  so  frequently  turned  their  backs  and 
held  their  hands  behind  them !  For  example,  when  a 
member  of  the  diplomatic  corps  called  with  me  upon  the 
newspaper  fraternity,  though  I  was  received  with  appar- 
ent cordiality,  there  was  yet  a  certain  constraint  which  to 
me    was     unaccountable.     My     friend,     the     diplomat, 


224       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

explained  to  me  afterward  that  perhaps  it  might  be  well 
to  insert  an  advertisement  of  my  mission  in  the  most 
prominent  papers,  and  also  purchase  a  goodly  number  of 
each  issue  containing  it. 

Acting  upon  this  disinterested  advice  I  at  once  sent 
word  to  each  editor  that  I  would  like  50  copies  of  his 
paper  when  it  should  contain  items  of  importance  to  the 
great  American  government !  The  result  was  that  the 
next  day  all  the  important  papers  of  San  Juan  vied  with 
each  other  in  most  flattering  notices  of  the  "  eminent 
commissioner,  whose  opportune  arrival  had  caused  such 
great  excitement." 

There  was  more  than  a  column  of  this  sort,  showing 
plainly  that  vast  leisure  was  the  portion  of  the  insular 
editor  and  that  he  was  sorely  put  to  it  for  news.  I  had 
felt  sure  that  the  receipt  he  sent  me  was  more  than  ample 
recompense  for  the  price  of  50  copies  without  fulsome 
eulogy.  The  following  is  a  literal  translation  of  that 
receipt :  "  El  administrador  of  the  Integridad  National, 
who  kisses  the  hands  of  your  worship,  presents  his  com- 
pliments to  Sefior  Don  F.  A.  Ober  and  has  the  great  pleas- 
ure of  inclosing  a  receipt  for  the  fifty  numbers  he  had  the 
distinguished  honor  of  remitting  to  him  yesterday  of  the 
above  named  periodical." 

Now,  that  was  an  ordinary  receipt  for  a  small  sum  of 
money,  and  the  editor  wrote  it  himself,  which  speaks  vol- 
umes for  newspaper  methods  as  they  prevailed  in  the 
island  before  the  capitulation. 

There  was  a  "  crying  need  "  for  a  good  periodical 
printed  in  Spanish  and  English  (it  appeared  to 
me)  ;  but  if  it  existed,  that  '*  long-felt-want "  has  been 
filled,  for  a  printing  press  went  along  with  the  advance 
g^uards  of  the  American  army  of  occupation.     Hardly 


PUERTO  RICO,  SPANISH,  AMERICAN    ^25 

had  our  gallant  soldiers  ceased  shooting  leaden  bullets 
into  the  resisting  Spaniards  in  Puerto  Rico,  on  receipt  of 
the  news  that  the  peace  protocol  had  been  signed,  than 
they  began  firing  paper  billets  at  the  inoffensive  Puerto- 
Riquefio.  Desire  for  the  latter's  enlightenment  caused 
"  the  little  red  schoolhouse  "  to  be  erected  on  almost  every 
hill  in  the  island ;  and  we  know  what  an  army  of  school- 
ma'ams  and  masters  succeeded  to  the  army  of  invasion ! 

As  an  index  of  West  Indian  enlightenment,  the  news- 
papers throughout  the  islands  are  likely  to  lead  one  far 
astray,  for  they  are  mostly  edited  with  an  eye  to  the  adver- 
tising columns — strange  to  say — said  advertisements  con- 
sisting mainly  of  Spanish,  French,  or  English  proprietary 
medicines,  chiefly  pills  and  plasters.  They  are  printed  on 
coarse  paper,  and  sold  at  a  high  price.  As  a  means  of 
disseminating  information  among  a  population  largely 
composed  of  illiterates,  they  apparently  fail  to  achieve 
their  destiny. 

This  brings  me  to  remark  upon  the  characteristics  of 
the  Puerto-Riquefio.  He  did  not  seem  to  have  any, 
before  the  arrival  of  the  Americans,  in  1898;  or  if  he  had 
any  he  kept  them  to  himself,  having  been  minded  thereto 
by  the  long  centuries  of  Spanish  oppression.  Not  only 
could  I  obtain  no  expression  amounting  to  an  opinion 
from  the  average  islander,  but  absolutely  no  information 
respecting  the  island  itself  save  what  was  open  to  my 
visual  organs.  There  was  a  great  highway,  the  *'  King's 
Road,"  running  over  the  mountains  from  Ponce  to  San 
Juan ;  several  sporadic  attempts  had  been  made  to  build  a 
railroad  in  various  parts  of  the  island,  but  little  had  been 
accomplished.  There  was  no  more  information  available 
as  to  the  interior  of  Puerto  Rico  than  there  was  at  that 
time  as  to  the  unknown  interior  of  Africa.     A  rumor  wa§ 


526       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

prevalent  that  at  one  time  a  German  naturalist  had  some- 
how worked  his  way  to  the  interior  hills  and  mountains ; 
but  he  kept  his  mouth  shut  as  to  what  he  saw — and  per- 
haps this  was  the  price  of  his  permission  to  explore. 

At  the  outbreak  of  the  Spanish-American  war,  one  of 
the-editors  of  a  famous  and  popular  magazine  came  to  me 
with  a  request  that  I  would  write  an  article  on  Puerto  Rico 
for  that  magazine,  as  I  was  the  only  man  he  could  find 
"  who  knew  anything  about  the  island  " !  This  may  seem 
in  the  nature  of  an  equivocal  compliment ;  but  I  wrote  the 
article,  nevertheless,  and  illustrated  it  with  some  of  the 
photographs  I  had  taken  when  the  policeman's  back  was 
turned.  At  that  time  I  drew  all  my  material  from  Span- 
ish sources,  and  that  same  year  wrote  a  book  on  the  island, 
which  was  probably  the  first  work  in  English  on  the  sub- 
ject in  more  than  half  a  century.*  Immediately  the  way 
had  been  opened  by  the  army,  there  was  a  deluge  of  news- 
paper correspondents  and  "  scientific  "  writers,  who  had 
been  detached  from  the  various  departments  in  Washing- 
ton, so  that  the  great  public,  which  had  been  presumably 
hungering  and  thirsting  for  information  on  Puerto  Rico, 
was  more  than  appeased.  Hence,  I  feel  that  another 
chapter  on  the  subject  will  be  looked  upon  as  somewhat 
supererogatory. 

But,  however  much  the  island  has  been  "  written  up  " 
since  the  American  occupation,  there  is  still  something  left 
that  may  be  considered  worth  the  while  to  investigate. 
Regarded  as  a  whole,  and  as  our  only  possession  in  the 
American  tropics,  Puerto  Rico  has  many  charms  for  both 
student  and  casual  tourist.  It  seems  so  to  me ;  but  I  may 
look  at  it  through  glasses  that  exaggerate  its  importance. 
I  will  confess  that  since  the  mystery  respecting  its  moun- 
*"  Puerto  Rico  and  its  Resources,"  New  York,  1B98. 


PUERTO  RICO,  SPANISH,  AMERICAN    227 

tains  and  inland  forests  has  been  dispelled,  the  charms  of 
Puerto  Rico  have  lost  their  freshness.  One  should  gather 
facts,  even  statistics,  while  the  morning  dew  is  on  them, 
as  one  would  gather  strawberries.  An  oft-reiterated  fact 
gets  stale  to  nauseousness ;  there  is  no  pleasure  in  follow- 
ing after  a  party  that  has  beaten  a  trail  to  the  mountain- 
top.  My  most  blest  experiences  have  been  those  face  to 
face' with  what  I  then  thought  was  primitive  nature. 

So  with  Puerto  Rico:  to  visit  it  now,  after  other  thou- 
sands have  tramped  its  trails  and  raised  the  dust  on  its 
roads,  would  be  wearisome.  And  if  to  me,  why.  not,  then, 
to  others? 

True,  why  not?  Well,  the  only  reason  I  can  give,  is 
that  perhaps  there  may  be  some  few  who  have  not  yet 
been  in  Puerto  Rico!  To  such,  perhaps,  the  island  may 
yet  gleam  afresh  in  pristine  lovdliness.  For,  after  all,  we 
cannot  expect  the  great  Creator  to  make  a  new  island  or 
a  new  continent  for  every  generation !  It  is  our  misfor- 
tune that  the  world  was  made  so  many  years  ago,  and  to 
us  is  now  old,  and  to  some  of  us,  perhaps,  somewhat  stale. 

I  found  in  an  old  history  of  Spain,  not  long  ago,  an 
item  to  the  effect  that  the  King  of  Spain,  Ferdinand,  hus- 
band of  Isabella,  had  signed  a  "  capitulation "  with 
Vicente  Yanez  Pinzon,  quondam  companion  of  Columbus 
on  his  first  voyage,  for  the  conquest  and  settlement  of  this 
island,  subsequently  known  as  Puerto  Rico.  Be  that  as  it 
may,  it  was  not  until  1508  or  1509  that  Ponce  de  Leon 
landed  here,  and  soon  after  established  a  settlement. 

After  the  Indians  had  been  reduced  to  subjection  the 
Spaniards  were  for  many  years  harassed  by  foreign  foes 
and  by  the  buccaneers.  Historic  personages,  like  Drake 
and  Hawkins,  and  two  hundred  years  later  Abercromb} 
(who,  like  Admiral  Sampson,  in  1898,  vainly  bombarded 


228       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

San  Juan),  honored  the  Spaniards  with  frequent  visits. 
But,  notwithstanding  these  persecutions,  and  the  occa- 
sional hurricanes,  which  devastated  the  island,  Puerto 
Rico  continued  to  flourish.  While  Cuba  was  the  prime 
milch  cow  of  Spain,  yet  Puerto  Rico  yielded  freely,  and 
many  an  official  owed  his  rise  to  a  position  here. 

Past  and  present  are  inseparably  linked,  in  the  affairs 
of  this  island.  For  instance,  in  the  Presupiiestos,  or  esti- 
mates, for  the  fiscal  year  1887-88,  I  found  this  curious 
item,  under  the  head  of  obligaciones  generates:  "  Article  i 
— To  Don  Cristobal  Colon,  Duque  de  Veragua,  three- 
quarters  of  the  obligation  acknowledged  in  favor  of  his 
defunct  ancestor — pesos  3400.  To  Don  Fernando  Colon, 
Marques  de  Barboles,  one  quarter  part  of  said  obligation 
— pesos  850." 

The  Duke  of  Veragua,'  it  may  be  remembered,  was  our 
guest  during  the  Exposition  year,  and  a  suppliant  for  our 
favor  in  the  shape  of  a  pension  or  donation,  in  recognition 
of  the  doings  of  his  reputed  ancestor,  Don  Cristobal 
Columbus.  He  was  not  a  bad-looking  man,  as  I  recall 
him,  having  the  air  of  a  well-to-do  **  Britisher,"  and  in 
fact  was  a  breeder  of  fine  bulls  for  fighting  in  the  ring. 
His  degenerate  brother,  the  Marquis  de  Barboles,  was  a 
shrunken,  monkey-like  apology  of  a  man,  who  went 
about  clinging  to  his  elder  brother's  coat-tails,  and  fre- 
quently ejaculating,  at  intervals,  "  Where  do  I  come  in?'* 
meaning,  thereby,  that  he  wanted  his  proportional  share 
of  the  donation,  whenever  it  might  be  donated.  And 
these  two,  following  after  a  long  line  of  non-resident  an- 
cestors, depended  upon  Puerto  Rican  bounty  for  many 
years. 

Spain  did  all  she  could  to  wreck  the  island;  and  yet 
after  the, United  States  government  took  possession,  it 


♦  '     •  •■3    5 


PUERTO  RICO,  SPANISH,  AMERICAN    229 

was  charged  that  the  Spanish  market  more  than  com- 
pensated for  the  Spanish  stealings.  After  the  great  hur- 
ricane of  August,  1899,  it  became  the  custom  to  charge 
all  evil  happenings  to  the  change  of  ownership,  and  the 
new  government  was  made  a  universal  scapegoat.  And 
yet,  see  what  that  government  has  done  for  Puerto  Rico. 
Look  at  the  schools  it  has  founded,  the  money  it  has  lav- 
ishly poured  out,  in  an  effort  to  make  amends  for  the 
sins  it  never  committed! 

The  enthusiasm  with  which  the  islanders  received  our 
army  continued  to  sustain  itself  until  it  was  seen,  by  one 
class,  that  the  incoming  Americans  had  not  made  them 
all  independently  rich,  and  by  another  that  they  had  not 
freed  them  from  their  century-long  condition  of  abject 
poverty.  Havmg  welcomed  their  **  Heaven-sent  deliv- 
erers,*' as  they  styled  them,  with  effusive  joy,  and  in  the 
Spanish  fashion  invited  them  in  to  help  themselves,  the 
natives  next  looked  forward  to  receiving  an  exceedingly 
great  reward.  But  it  did  not  immediately  materialize, 
and  they  became,  if  possible,  even  poorer  than  before. 
Then  came  the  hurricane,  the  most  disastrous  'in  cen- 
turies, and  that,  too,  was  charged  against  the  Yankees. 
Thus,  for  a  time  the  military  government  of  the  island 
had  a  very  ''  hard  row  to  hoe."  But  it  hoed  it,  neverthe- 
less— at  the  expense  of  our  government.  The  Puerto 
Ricans  were  fed  from  our  overflowing  granaries,  they 
received  millions  of  rations  gratis,  and,  after  that,  mil- 
lions of  dollars  were  returned  to  them  which  had  been 
received  as  duties  on  their  goods.  Still,  it  is  not  a  matter 
of  record  that  the  islanders  ever  murmured  a  single 
expression  of  thanks! 

It  was  ascertained  that  most  of  the  sugar-planters, 
instead  of  having  been  ruined  by  the  hurricane,  as  was 


230       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

pathetically  reported,  had  actually  benefited  by  it,  owing 
to  the  sedimentation  from  the  hill-washings,  which  was 
spread  like  a  fertile  blanket  over  their  lowland  acres, 
enriching  their  exhausted  soils  beyond  belief.  The  cof- 
fee planters  suffered  more ;  but  they  soon  rose  from  their 
ashes  and  joined  in  the  general  hue  and  cry  that  they  had 
lost  the  market  of  Spain,  without  having  received  an 
adequate  return.  That  they,  in  common  with  all  others, 
had  received  the  priceless  boon  of  freedom,  did  not  count 
for  anything  at  all,  in  their  estimate  of  results. 

There  remain  the  laboring  classes,  which  comprise  the 
bulk  of  Puerto  Rico's  population,  and  which  were  the 
recipients  of  charity  from  the  United  States  to  such  an 
extent  that  the  term  "  laboring  class  "  was  practically 
discarded.  It  was  a  misnomer,  anyway,  for  there  is  no 
class  in  the  island  that  has  ever  earned  this  distinctive 
appellation.  They  reside  mainly  in  the  mountain  dis- 
tricts, but  their  mouth-pieces,  the  native  politicians,  dwell 
in  the  towns  and  cities  of  the  coast,  where  they  readily 
reached  the  ears  and  the  purses  of  sympathetic  Amer- 
icans. Accepting  their  doleful  tales,  thousands  of  poor 
people  starved  to  death  during  the  military  interregnum, 
and  in  proof  of  the  truth  of  their  assertions  they  dis- 
patched carefully-coached  delegations  of  emaciated  men 
and  barefoot  women  to  San  Juan,  there  to  beard  the 
governor  in  his  castle. 

To  one  who  knows  the  island  and  its  almost  limitless 
resources,  this  story  of  starvation  seems  false  on  its  face ; 
but  perhaps  the  best  refutation  of  it — at  least  inferentially 
— is  to  recite  why  the  Puerto  Rican  need  not  starve, 
instead  of  entering  a  simple  denial. 

In  the  first  place,  compare  the  climatic  conditions  of 
the  tropical  zone  in  which  lies  Puerto  Rico  with  those  of 


PUERTO  RICO,  SPANISH,  AMERICAN    231 

our  own  so-called  temperate  region:  perpetual  summer 
on  the  one  hand,  contrasted  with  most  rigorous  winter 
on  the  other  more  than  six  months  of  the  year.  The 
Puerto  Rican,  then,  has  no  winter  to  provide  against,  with 
its  consequent  expenses  for  comfortable  habitation,  fuel, 
and  clothing.  And  by  the  Puerto  Rican  is  meant  the 
gibaro,  or  peasant  laborer,  about  whom  the  politicians 
were  so  tenderly  solicitous.  He  is  the  present  repre- 
sentative of  a  long  line  of  paupers  extending  through 
centuries,  not  one.  of  whom  ever  possessed  a  dollar 
over  night  or  had  a  voice  in  the  management  of  insular 
affairs. 

He  is  a  veritable  peon,  or  slave  of  ancestral  and  cumu- 
lative debt,  and  in  probably  nine  cases  out  of  ten  is  owned 
body  and  soul  by  the  sugar,  coffee,  or  tobacco  raiser,  who 
was  clamoring  so  loudly  that  he  should  *'  have  his  rights," 
and  so  insistent  upon  the  return  of  those  "  millions  wrung 
as  customs  from  unwilling  contributors." 

Well,  without  seeking  to  involve  the  gibaro  in  politics — 
except,  perhaps,  to  show  how  he  has  been  a  contributory 
cause  of  discontent,  let  us  show  how  nearly  impossible  it 
is  for  him  to  starve,  or  even  to  suffer  severely,  save 
through  his  own  fault.  In  the  matter  of  a  habitation  he 
is  content  with  the  merest  shelter  from  the  elements,  and 
if  he  were  ordinarily  industrious  (which  he  is  not)  the 
head  of  a  family  might  erect  such  a  shelter  as  suffices  the 
average  Puerto  Rican  in  less  than  two  days.  First,  four 
holes  are  dug  in  the  ground,  into  which  four  posts  are 
inserted  and  set  erect.  These  are  connected  by  frame- 
works of  smaller  poles,  which  are  covered  with  palm 
leaves,  and  the  "  house  "  is  made.  This  is  the  simplest 
type  of  dwelling,  such  as  generally  answers  the  needs 
of  the  peon.     The  floor  is  of  hardened  mud  or  clay,  and 


232       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

sometimes  the  wattled  sides  are  plastered  over  with  mud 
or  mortar;  sometimes  the  hut  is  constructed  of  palm 
boards,  and  well  thatched  with  palm  leaves  or  yagua 
shingles,  made  of  palm  spathes. 

The  giharo's  house  costs  him  nothing  but  a  little  labor, 
and  is  mainly  set  up  without  nails,  or  any  furnishings 
whatever  from  the  stores.  The  palms,  growing  every- 
where in  the  country,  yield  all  necessary  materials.  For 
the  simple  utensils  used  in  his  domestic  economy,  the 
householder  goes  to  another  tree,  the  calabash,  the  fruit 
of  which  is  converted  into  vessels  of  various  sizes,  such 
as  dishes  and  water  bottles,  plates  and  spoons,  while  the 
yagua  of  the  royal  palm  furnishes  tubs  for  washing 
clothes  in,  cradles  for  the  babies,  wrappers  for  cigars, 
and  all  bundles  that  are  to  be  kept  dry,  and  even  founda- 
tions for  the  rude  beds  which,  when  hammocks  are  not 
used,  are  spread  upon  the  floor  at  night.  From  two 
species  of  palms,  the  royal  and  the  cocoa,  and  the  cala- 
bash, the  Puerto  Rican  obtains  ample  material  for  his 
house  and  its  equipment. 

This  hut  is  called  a  bohio,  in  contradistinction  to  the 
house  of  the  town,  which  is  usually  built  of  stone,  is  much 
more  pretentious  and  is  known  as  the  casa. 

To  establish  the  fact  already  asserted,  that  the  natives 
of  the  island  are  extremely  poor  and  shiftless,  I  will  refer 
to  the  report  of  Brigadier  General  Davis,  in  which  he  says 
of  these  people : 

"  They  live  in  huts  made  of  sticks  and  poles,  covered 
with  thatches  of  palm  leaves.  A  family  of  a  dozen  may 
be  huddled  together  in  one  room,  often  with  only  a  dirt 
floor.  They  have  little  food  worthy  the  name,  and  only 
the  most  scanty  clothing,  while  children  of  less  than  seven 
or  eight  years  are  often  entirely  naked.     A  few  may  own 


PUERTO  RICO,  SPANISH,  AMERICAN    233 

a  machete  or  hoe,  but  more  have  no  worldly  possessions 
whatever.  Their  food  is  fruit,  and  if  they  are  wage- 
earners,  a  little  rice  and  codfish  in  addition.  They  are 
without  ambition,  and  see  no  incentive  to  labor  beyond 
the  least  that  will  provide  the  barest  sustenance." 

We  have  seen  that  a  newly  coupled  pair  of  Puerto 
Ricans  just  starting  out  in  life  incurred  no  expense  what- 
ever for  a  dwelling;  and,  judging  from  the  statistics,  fur- 
nished during  Spanish  domination,  no  great  amount  was 
squandered  on  the  marriage  ceremony ;  for  out  of  twenty- 
five  thousand  births  in  1887,  for  instance,  eleven  thou- 
sand were  illegitimate. 

Let  it  be  assumed,  then,  that  a  pair  of  gibaros  may  be 
established  in  domicile,  or  en  casa,  without  the  expendi- 
ture of  a  dollar.  What  will  be  the  household  expenses, 
as  the  months  and  years  roll  by  ? 

House  and  furnishings  they  already  have.  The  first 
necessity,  fuel  for  fire  (for  culinary  purposes  only),  lies 
in  the  fields  or  woods  at  or  near  their  door.  An  iron  pot 
has  been  begged,  borrowed,  or  stolen,  and  no  other  kitchen 
utensil  is  actually  necessary  except  a  knife,  which  is  sup- 
plied by  the  machete,  universally  carried  by  the  peon,  and 
which  is  never  out  of  his  sight  or  grasp.  The  machete 
is  so  much  a  part  and  parcel  of  the  giharo's  outfit  that  he 
only  attracts  attention  when  it  is  absent.  He  acquires  it 
early  in  life,  and  parts  with  it  only  through  stern  neces- 
sity, as,  for  example,  when  funds  are  needed  for  gambling 
or  for  betting  on  a  favorite  fighting  cock. 

With  the  machete  the  peon  hews  down  the  trees  for 
corner  posts  to  his  hut,  lops  ofT  the  leaves  of  palm  for 
thatch  and  bedding,  digs  holes  for  setting  out  tubers  and 
plants,  and  sometimes,  though  rarely,  removes  the  weeds 
from  his  garden. 


234        OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

"  Fingers  were  made  before  forks,"  is  an  axiom  so  self- 
evident  that  no  peon  ever  gives  it  a  thought,  and  the  Httle 
toddlers  that  soon  in  time  gather  around  the  household 
hearth,  or  the  fire-bed  in  the  center  of  the  hut,  follow  the 
example  of  their  elders  and  eat  without  any  other  assist- 
ance than  their  owfi  chubby  hands,  which  they  dip  into  the 
pot,  like  the  others. 

The  only  expense  for  garments  is  incurred  by  the  adult 
members  of  the  family,  and  probably  does  not  aggregate 
$5  a  year.  Until  the  age  of  seven  to  ten,  the  children  go 
about  as  naked  as  they  were  born. 

In  order  to  impress  my  readers  with  the  fact  that  the 
Puerto  Riqueno,  even  the  poverty-stricken  giharo,  may 
have  quite  an  extensive  range  to  his  dietary,  I  have  ven- 
tured to  imagine  him  engaged  in  celebrating  the  last  of 
the  dias  de  fiesta,  or  feast  days,  which  has  been  bestowed 
upon  him  by  a  paternal  government — our  time-honored 
*'  Thanksgiving." 

Taking  the  island  of  Puerto  Rico  as  typical  of  our 
tropical  possessions,  lying  as  it  does  nearer  to  our  shores 
than  Hawaii  or  the  Philippines,  and  on  a  median  line  of 
latitude  as  compared  with  the  others,  we  shall  find 
Thanksgiving  Day,  or  Dia  de  Gracias,  as  it  is  there 
termed,  honored  by  the  closing  of  government  offices  and 
appropriately  observed.  The  stores  are  open  on  half- 
time  only,  the  plantation  works  are  idle,  and  the  people  of 
town  and  country  seize  the  occasion  for  visiting. 

As  an  excuse  for  idleness  merely,  the  Puerto  Rican 
laborer  hails  the  Dia  de  Gracias  with  joy  and  promises 
himself  indulgence  in  a  dan::a,  or,  perchance,  a  sur- 
reptitious cock-fight.  Coming,  as  it  does,  at  or  near  the 
end  of  the  much-dreaded  hurricane  season,  Thanksgiving 
offers  even  the  punctilious  Puerto  Rican  a  good  excuse 


PUERTO  RICO,  SPANISH,  AMERICAN    235 

for  joining  in  festivities,  participation  in  which  he  might 
be  averse  to  by  training,  though  not  from  temperament. 

Distant  from  the  equator  less  than  twenty  degrees, 
Puerto  Rico's  Thanksgiving  event  takes  place  in  sunny, 
summer  weather,  with  the  temperature  somewhere  up  in 
the  nineties.  All  nature  is  abloom  at  this  season  and  the 
air  is  filled  with  the  promise  of  harvests.  Provided  the 
season  has  passed  without  the  visitation  of  a  hurricane, 
evidences  of  the  fruitful  soil  are  on  every  hand.  Along 
the  coast  the  cocoa  palm  droops  its  head  above  heavy 
clusters  of  nuts  shining  golden  in  the  sun;  warm-hued 
bananas  hang  invitingly  from  their  stalks ;  breadfruits 
are  ripening  on  stately  trees  with  deep-lobed  leaves.  Then 
there  are  oranges,  limes,  lemons,  guavas,  sapadillas, 
mangos,  custard  apples,  etc., — in  fact,  all  fruits  that  are 
grown  in  equatorial  regions.  Prominent  among  the 
fruits  native  to  Puerto  Rico  and  the  West  Indies  in  gen- 
eral is  the  delicious  pineapple^  which  the  first  Spanish 
conquerors  found  growing  here,  cultivated  by  the  natives. 

So  far  as  the  gibaro's  table  is  concerned,  it  cannot  be 
said,  in  the  language  of  Pope,  "  Viands  of  various  kinds 
allure  the  taste,"  for  they  certainly  do  not.  The  average 
Puerto  Riqueno  is  a  vegetarian,  perforce ;  yet  there  are 
certain  indigenous  animals,  both  birds  and  quadrupeds, 
that  would  yield  him  at  least  a  taste  of  flesh  on  occasion, 
were  he  possessed  of  any  skill  at  all  as  hunter  or  trapper. 
While  the  fauna  of  Puerto  Rico  is  not  extensive  and  nq 
large  animals  have  there  their  habitat,  there  are  a  few 
small  quadrupeds  that  would  serve  excellently  to  furnish 
the  Thanksgiving  table  in  the  giharo's  humble  hut.  There 
is  the  agouti,  for  instance  (Dasyprocta  agouti),  a  little 
hare-like  and  inoffensive  animal,  with  glossy,  snuff -brown 
coat  and  a  sensitive  nose  with  which  he  sometimes  ferrets 


236        OUR  WEST   INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

out  the  native  tubers,  like  the  yam  and  eddoe.  Inasmuch 
as  he  prowls  about  the  "  provision  grounds "  on  the 
borders  of  the  woods  and  takes  toll  therefrom,  it  is  no 
more  than  just  that  the  native  biped  should  make  him  pay 
therefor — always  provided  he  can  catch  the  agouti. 

He  would  prove  a  welcome  substitute  for  turkey,  and 
so  would  another  small  animal  which,  like  the  agouti,  is 
getting  scarce  in  Puerto  Rico,  the  armadillo.  Properly 
cooked  in  his  shell  (which  shell,  according  to  Sir  Walter 
Raleigh,  *'  appeareth  somewhat  like  unto  that  of  a  Rino- 
cero"),  the  armadillo  surpasses  quail  or  turkey  in  the 
flavor  of  its  tender  flesh.  It  must  be  cooked  by  a  master, 
though — a  "  real  and  truly  "  chef,  one  who  has  been  bred 
on  a  plantation  and  taken  a  cruise  or  two  along  the  Span-- 
ish  Main. 

There  is  but  one  meat  tenderer  than  quail  or  armadillo, 
and  that  is  of  the  iguana,  the  large  arboreal  lizard  that 
inhabits  the  lowlands  of  all  the  West  Indian  islands.  It 
should  be  stewed  with  yam,  plantain,  etc.,  to  be  perfectly 
palatable.  The  streams  of  Puerto  Rico  still  yield  abun- 
dantly of  crayfish  (in  the  Spanish  islands  called  camar- 
ones),  and  in  the  hills  are  found  the  migratory  land 
crabs,  both  crustaceans  forming  delicious  adjuncts  to  a 
Thanksgiving  menu  and  eagerly  sought  by  the  natives. 
From  the  salt  waters  that  surround  the  island  a  great  var- 
iety of  fish  may  be  extracted,  and  there  are  mussels  and 
oysters,  but  of  inferior  quality. 

Leaving  the  native  fruits  aside,  it  is  not  likely  that 
strangers  temporarily  resident  in  Puerto  Rico,  such  as  the 
soldiers  and  office-holders,  will  draw  heavily  upon  the 
articles  enumerated  as  provand  for  the  '*  Dia  de  Gracias" ; 
at  least,  not  so  long  as  the  steamers  connecting  with  the 
United  States  run  regularly  %x\A  Qold-storage  plants  of 


PUERTO  RICO,  SPANISH,  AMERICAN    237 

capacity  exist  at  Ponce  and  San  Juan.  In  point  of  fact, 
the  non-resident  Americans,  as  well  as  the  natives  of 
town  and  city,  are  becoming  increasingly  dependent  upon 
cold  storage,  especially  for  viands  of  superior  quality. 
Throughout  the  West  Indies,  not  alone  in  Puerto  Rico, 
fruit  and  fowl  are  generally  regarded  as  "  by-products," 
that  may  come  up  somehow,  anyhow,  in  the  nature  of  a 
providential  dispensation.  This  may  account  for  their 
general  inferiority,  for  the  tropical  climate  is  particularly 
adapted  to  the  raising  of  both,  especially  domestic  fowl. 

And  as  to  turkey,  that  bird  without  which  Thanksgiv- 
ing Day  would  be  considered  lacking  in  the  first  requisite 
for  feasting,  it  may  be  remarked  that  Puerto  Rico  proba- 
bly received  it  many  years  before  the  territory  now 
known  as  the  United  States  was  permanently  settled  by 
Europeans.  It  is  generally  conceded  by  naturalists  that 
the  first  European  turkey  came  from  Mexico ;  though 
there  are  those  who  declare  that  the  Cabots  took  it  to 
England  in  the  last  decade  of  the  fifteenth  century. 

This  sketch  of  the  island's  resources  in  the  matter  of 
providing  for  the  table  from  its  own  products  suggests 
comparison  with  some  land  less  favored  by  nature  in 
the  North,  New  England,  for  example.  See  what  enor- 
mous natural  advantages  the  former  possesses  over  the 
latter.  Note  the  great  central  range  of  mountains, 
rising  3600  feet  in  Yunque,  with  ramifications  east  and 
west,  north  and  south ;  with  its  thousand  rivers,  short- 
lived, it  is  true,  but  with  great  possibilities  for  irrigation, 
electric  and  water  power.  There  are  scores  of  water- 
falls, some  of  large  size,  and  at  least  one  stream  has 
been  found  by  American  engineers  capable  of  1000 
hor3e-power. 

Compare  these  two  regions  climatically,  and  contrast 


238        OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

New  England,  with  its  rigorous  winters  and  short 
summers,  with  the  perpetual  summer-land  of  Puerto 
Rico.  Lying  between  the  i8th  and  19th  degrees  of 
north  latitude,  its  climate  is  tropical  along  the  coasts, 
but  in  the  interior  almost  temperate.  One  can  secure 
a  radical  change  of  climate  by  riding  a  few  hours 
mountain-wards,  as  well  as  a  change  in  fruits  and  veg- 
etation. 

The  population  of  the  island,  about  900,000,  and 
composed  in  great  part  of  poverty-stricken  half-  and 
quarter-breeds,  ignorant,  even  illiterate,  we  may  also 
compare  with  that  of  New  England,  with  its  high 
standards  of  education  and  morality.  There  is  no 
standard  of  morality  here,  all  observers  agree ;  but  it  is 
not  altogether  the  fault  of  the  simple-minded  people. 
They  found  obstacles  in  the  way  of  lawful  wedlock, 
so  they  dispensed  with  the  ceremony  to  a  great  extent. 

They  have  felt  the  oppressive  restrictions  of  a  distant 
and  severe  government,  so  they  have  concluded  it  to  be 
altogether  futile  to  attempt  the  laying  up  of  riches  or 
the  accumulation  of  worldly  goods.  Their  antepasados, 
also,  some  of  them  leading  back  to  paupers  and  criminals, 
transported  at  the  state's  expense,  have  not  bequeathed 
to  them  a  very  hopeful  heritage. 

The  Rev.  Father  Sherman,  who  traveled  over  the 
island  shortly  after  we  took  possession,  reported  the 
children  as  quick  to  learn,  precocious  even,  and  very  sus- 
ceptible of  becoming  Americanized.  He  found  the 
natives,  though  nominally  Catholics,  practically  pagans; 
a  large  proportion  of  them  illiterate,  and  resorting  to 
most  barbarous  practices  respecting  the  inhumation 
of  their  dead. 

Church  and  State  have  gone  hand  in  hand  here  in 


PUERTO  RICO,  SPANISH,  AMERICAN    239 

Puerto  Rico,  as  in  Cuba,  and  the  first  step  of  our  govern- 
ment will  be — has  been,  in  fact — to  dissociate  them, 
to  the  vast  benefit  of  the  people  at  large.  Intramural 
inhumations  will  no  longer  be  permitted  and  the  people 
will  no  longer  support  a  church  which  they  have  out- 
grown or  discarded. 

In  attempting  to  predict  the  future  of  this  island,  one 
must  base  his  assumptions  upon  its  permanent  possession 
by  the  United  States,  and  the  integrity  of  those  delegated 
to  authority  here.  We  cannot  doubt  that,  unless 
deprived  of  it  by  unforeseen  casualties  of  war,  we  shall 
always  hold  it  as  an  integral  portion  of  our  great  Repub- 
lic. We  cannot  assume  otherwise  than  that  those  sent 
to  rule  it  shall  be  actuated  by  the  highest  motives  of 
patriotism  and  disinterestedness. 

Here,  then,  are  two  factors  making  for  success  at  the 
outset,  and  calculated  to  infuse  new  vigor  into  the 
jaded  proprietors  of  overworked  lands  and  estates. 
Scientific  agriculture  will  become  the  hand-maiden  of 
government,  and  there  is  not  a  square  mile  of  the  island 
that  will  not  feel  its  beneficent  influence. 

There  are,  as  we  know,  limitations  to  tropical  agri- 
culture in  a  small  island  like  Puerto  Rico,  with  its  3600 
miles  of  area;  but  what,  in  my  opinion,  will  be  the  most 
interesting,  if  not  profitable,  outcome  of  this  acquisition 
by  our  government  of  a  truly  tropical  possession,  will  be 
the  opportunity  for  experimentation  in  a  field  entirely 
new  to  us.  That  is,  we  have  never  yet  entertained  the 
possibilities  of  tropical  agriculture ;  we  have  devoted  all 
the  great  resources  of  our  agricultural  colleges  and 
departments  to  the  exploitation  of  products  solely  of  the 
temperate  zone. 

Does  it  not  now  dawn  upon  us  that  here  before  us  is 


240       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

outspread  a  limitless  field  for  investigation  and  experi- 
ment? Tropical  agriculture  has  never  been  subjected  to 
the  scientific  harnessing,  to  the  analysis  of  trained  profes- 
sors and  experts,  as  it  will  be  soon.  I  predict,  in  truth,  that 
not  many  years  will  elapse  before  we  shall  have  chairs 
of  Tropical  Agriculture  and  Horticulture  in  our  colleges. 
A  new  world  has  been  opened  to  us — whether  we  retain 
the  Philippines  or  not;  whether  we  continue  in  control 
of  Puerto  Rico  or  not — by  the  mere  suggestion  of  their 
occupancy,  be  it  permanent  or  temporary. 

It  is  not  on  record,  I  believe,  that  our  governmental 
geological  surveys  have  ever  located  any  great  bodies  of 
mineral  lands;  but  there  ought  to  be  a  field  for  an 
expert  in  the  West  Indies,  one  who  could  authorita- 
tively inform  us  as  to  the  existence  of  auriferous  terri- 
tory, if  there  be  any.  However,  there  is  gold  in  Puerto 
Rico.  There  was  gold  there  before  its  discovery  by 
Columbus  in  1493,  ^^  the  golden  ornaments  of  the  natives 
proved.  When,  in  1508,  Ponce  de  Leon,  the  famed 
seeker  after  the  Fountain  of  Youth,  first  reached  the 
island,  he  was  hospitably  entertained  by  the  Indian 
cacique  Agueynaba,  who  presented  him  with  fine  speci- 
mens of  gold  obtained  from  the  river  beds  in  the  western 
part  of  the  island.  Ponce  was  so  excited  that  he  could 
hardly  rest  until  he  had  sent  to  Santo  Domingo,  the 
island  whence  he  had  invaded  Puerto  Rico,  for  soldiers 
to  accompany  him  in  his  search  for  gold  in  the  interior. 

It  was  gold  that  he  was  after,  as  well  as  Columbus 
and  all  the  other  Spaniards  of  their  time,  and  that  they 
got  the  precious  metal  in  quantities  the  official  records 
of  the  Spanish  Government  attest.  The  city  of  Caparra 
was  founded  in  15 10,  but  owing  to  the  strong  desire  of 
the   Spaniards   to   search   for  gold   it   was   practically 


PUERTO  RICO,  SPANISH,  AMERICAN    241 

without  inhabitants  during  the  first  two  years  of  its 
existence,  since  every  able-bodied  man  was  sifting  the 
sands  of  the  rivers  that  came  down  from  the  mountains. 
The  Indians  were  impressed  at  the  very  outset,  and  soon 
all  those  who  came  within  reach  of  the  white  men  were 
aiding  the  Spaniards  in  their  investigations.  At  last  it 
became  so  unbearable  that  Cacique  Agueynaba  resolved 
to  either  put  an  end  to  Spanish  oppressions  or  himself 
receive  his  quietus. 

He  had  been  told  that  the  Spaniards  were  immortal, 
and  for  a  time  he  believed  it,  seeing  them  come  up  out 
of  the  sea  in  almost  endless  processions.  But,  like  the 
canny  Scotchman  who  lived  in  story  afterward,  he  had 
his  "  doots  "  at  last,  and  resolved  to  test  the  theory  by  an 
original  application  of  the  water  cure.  That  is,  he  cap- 
tured a  Spaniard  alone  in  the  mountains,  and  held  his 
head  under  the  water  of  a  stream  for  two  or  three  hours. 
Then  he  took  him  to  the  bank  and  sat  beside  him  for 
two  days,  or  until  he  received  incontestable  evidence  of 
his  demise.  Such  heroic  treatment  put  an  end  for  a  time 
to  gold  hunting  in  Puerto  Rico,  for,  the  Spaniards  resent- 
ing it  and  getting  after  the  cacique,  an  insurrection 
followed  which  was  not  put  down  until  the  Indians  were 
practically  exterminated. 

Still,  traditions  of  gold  in  the  island  lingered  through 
the  centuries,  the  stories  stimulated  every  now  and  then 
by  rich  finds  by  natives  who  washed  the  sands  in  a 
shiftless  manner  with  wooden  dishes  and  without  system. 
There  are,  in  fact,  people  living  in  Puerto  Rico  to-day 
who  gain  a  livelihood  by  gold  washing,  pursued  in  just 
the  same  way  as  their  ancestors  before  them  followed 
it,  and  as  it  is  carried  on,  also,  in  the  adjacent  island  of 
Santo  Domingo. 


242        OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

The  same  conditions  prevail  in  Puerto  Rico  as  in  Santo 
Domingo,  though  gold  washing  in  the  former  island  has 
not  been  so  persistently  carried  on  as  in  the  latter,  where 
the  rivers  are  less  numerous,  but  at  the  same  time  larger. 

It  is  safe  to  say  that  the  mineral  resources  of  Puerto 
Rico  have  not  yet  been  fully  exploited,  though  the  rivers 
may  no  longer  pour  down  golden  sands,  as  of  yore.  It 
is  in  the  heart  of  the  mountains,  in  the  great  Luquillo 
range,  that  search  should  be  carried  on,  where  many  of 
the  rivers  running  to  the  coasts  have  their  origin. 


XV 

THINGS  WORTH  SEEING  IN  PUERTO  RICO 

How  the  writer  is  handicapped  —  The  two  great  attractions  of 
the  island  —  San  Juan,  the  Morro,  and  walls  of  circumval- 
lation  —  Casa  Blanca,  one-time  residence  of  Ponce  de  Leon 

—  Whence  he  sailed  to  search  for  the  Fountain  of  Youth  — 
The  courteous  Puerto-Riqueiios — When  the  Stars  and  Stripes 
were  first  unfurled  here  —  The  Governor  General's  palace  — 
Suburbs  of  San  Juan  —  The  glorious  views  down  the  coast  — 
A  fragmentary  railroad  —  Arecibo  and  Aguadilla  —  Monkey 
Island  and  the  Mona  Passage  —  Mayaguez,  Hormi- 
gueros,  and  San  German  —  Yauco  and  the  port  where  Amer- 
ican troops  first  landed  —  Ponce  and  its  Parque  de  Bombas  — 
Schools,  teachers,  and  scholars  of  the  island  —  The  com- 
posite population  —  The  Spanish-Arabic  fonda  and  the  siesta 

—  The  great  road  over  the  mountains  —  Mineral  baths  of 
Coamo  —  Aybonito,  and  the  fighting  there  when  the  protocol 
was  signed  —  Tropical  scenery  and  temperate  climate  —  Re- 
gion of  coffee,  cacao,  and  royal  palm  —  Descent  of  the  moun- 
tains from  Cayey  to  San  Juan. 

SINCE  the  island  of  Puerto  Rico  became  an  Amer- 
ican possession,  many  meritorious  works  have 
appeared  describing  it  and  treating  of  every 
phase  of  life  and  nature  there.  As  our  first,  and  at 
present  only  holding  in  the  American  tropics,  it  has 
received  particular  attention,  and  like  Cuba  has,  perhaps, 
been  "  done  to  death  "  by  bookwriters  and  newspaper 
correspondents.  Still,  the  newspaper  article  is  ephemeral, 
and  the  life  of  a  book  scarcely  ever  exceeds  two  or  three 
years,  while  new  readers  are  constantly  appearing;  so  I 

243 


244       OUR  WEST   INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

will  venture  anew  to  exploit  the  attractions  of  an  island 
which  I  was  among  the  first,  if  not  the  very  first,  to  bring 
to  the  attention  of  the  American  public. 

The  two  great  attractions  of  Puerto  Rico,  in  my  hum- 
ble opinion,  are  the  city  of  San  Juan  and  the  military 
road  over  the  mountains  between  that  city  and  Ponce.  San 
Juan  is  the  oldest  city  in  the  United  States — assuming 
the  island  to  be  actually  ours — as  it  is  a  contemporary  of 
Baracoa  and  Santiago  de  Cuba,  and  forty  years  older 
than  Saint  Augustine,  in  Florida.  It  is  also  the  only 
walled  city  within  our  jurisdiction,  and  is  universally  con- 
ceded to  be  among  the  finest  specimens  of  military  archi- 
tecture in  the  New  World.  Situated  as  it  is,  upon  an 
island  standing  well  out  from  the  main  into  the  sea,  with 
its  massive  walls  of  circumvallation  from  fifty  to  one 
hundred  feet  high,  it  presents  a  most  imposing  spectacle. 
Trapezoidal  in  shape,  the  city  rises  amphitheater-like 
from  the  peaceful  bay  within  the  curvature  of  its  walls, 
while  upon  the  ocean  front  of  the  little  island  upon  which 
it  is  built  heavy  surfs  of  the  Atlantic  roll  and  thunder. 

The  seaward  or  western  front  of  the  island  is  so  pre- 
cipitous, and  the  water  close  to  land  so  deep  that  one 
might  toss  a  stone  ashore  as  the  steamer  enters.  Here 
stands  the  faro,  or  light-tower,  which  has  for  many  years 
borne  a  lantern  170  feet  above  the  sea,  and  is  one  of  the 
first  artificial  objects  to  claim  attention  as  the  island  is 
approached.  This  lighthouse  stands  within  the  citadel 
known  as  Morro  Castle,  which  in  Spanish  hands  was  a 
small  military  town  in  itself,  with  chapel,  barracks,  bomb- 
proofs,  and  dismal  dungeons  down  by  the  sea.  It  was 
completed  as  long  ago  as  1584,  and  is  in  shape  an  obtuse 
angle,  with  three  tiers  of  batteries  facing  the  sea,  placed 
one  above  another,  so  that  their  concentrated  fires  shall 


SIGHTS   IN   PUERTO   RICO  245 

cross.  This  old  citadel  was  the  beginning  of  the  vast 
wall  which  completely  incloses  the  city,  and  which  was 
planned  in  its  entirety  in  1630,  but  not  completed  until 
1 77 1.  The  complement  of  the  Morro  in  the  west  end  of 
the  island  is  the  fortress  of  San  Cristobal  at  the  east, 
which  faces  oceanwards  and  also  guards  the  approaches 
from  the  mainland.  It  is  entered  by  a  ramp  on  the  high- 
est part  of  the  hill,  where  its  fortifications  are  cut  out  of 
the  solid  rock,  and  commands,  with  its  tiers  of  guns,  the 
city  and  the  inner  harbor. 

Beneath  the  ocean  wall  of  the  citadel  lies  the  cemetery, 
where,  in  old-world  fashion,  most  of  the  dead  are 
"  pigeon-holed "  in  Columbaria,  and  where,  until  the 
American  occupation,  the  graves  of  common  people  were 
merely  rented  for  a  term  of  years,  at  the  end  of  which 
their  remains  were  turned  out  to  make  room  for  others. 
All  this  is  changed  now,  as  well  as  the  rigid  rules  relaxed 
by  which  the  fortifications  were  rendered  inaccessible  to 
strangers.  There  is  now  no  need  for  secrecy,  and  with 
a  permit  from  the  commandant  one  may  ramble  at  will 
over  walls  and  into  casemates  which  at  one  time  could 
only  be  visited  at  the  peril  of  one's  life. 

While  the  churches,  with  their  wealth  of  treasure  and 
ornament,  their  priceless  relics  and  ancient  architecture, 
will  claim  much  attention,  of  course,  yet  the  structure 
that  will  most  occupy  one's  thoughts  will  probably  be  the 
"  Casa  Blanca,"  one-time  castle  of  old  Ponce  de  Leon. 
It  stands  within  a  garden  surrounded  by  a  crenelated 
wall,  upon  a  bluff,  from  which,  through  the  cocoa  palms, 
there  is  a  glorious  view  of  the  beautiful  bay  and  the  dis- 
tant mountains.  Be  sure  to  visit  it  at  sunset,  or  by  moon- 
light, and,  sentiment  aside,  those  who  love  the  beautiful  in 
nature  will  be  well  rewarded. 


H6       our  V/EST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

It  might  be  well  to  inquire,  at  this  point,  into  the  his- 
toric values  of  this  Spanish-American  city,  with  its 
memories  extending  back  to  the  days  of  Ponce  de  Leon 
and  Columbus. 

It  was  in  November,  1493,  that  Columbus,  then  on  his 
second  voyage  to  America,  first  sighted  the  lofty  moun- 
tains of  this  island,  and  called  it  San  Juan  Bautista.  Its 
native  name  was  Borinquen,  and  subsequently,  in  some 
way  it  came  to  be  called  Puerto  Rico,  or  the  Rich  Port, 
after  the  harbor  of  Aguadilla,  on  the  western  coast. 
Columbus  did  not  revisit  the  island,  and  for  several  years 
it  was  left  alone  by  the  European  voyagers,  who  were 
now  flitting  to  and  fro  in  the  West  Indies.  But  in  1509 
the  governor  of  the  eastern  province  of  Hispaniola,  or 
Santo  Domingo,  Ponce  de  Leon,  made  an  expedition 
hither  and  discovered  that  the  island  was  inhabited  by  a 
gentle  tribe  of  Indians,  who  warmly  welcomed  him  to 
their  country.  Wherever  the  Spaniard  went  war  was 
inevitable,  and  soon  the  Indians  suffered  so  much  that 
they  attacked  the  invaders  in  sheer  desperation.  The 
eventual  outcome  for  them  was  extinction,  and  not  one 
descendant  of  those  people  remains  alive  to-day.  Having 
"  pacified "  the  country,  after  the  customary  Spanish 
fashion,  Ponce  de  Leon  founded  a  city,  which  he  called 
Caparra,  and  from  which  he  removed  to  the  site  of  San 
Juan,  in  151 1. 

It  was  in  1 5 12,  as  all  Americans  know,  that  he  set  forth 
on  that  romantic  quest  for  the  "  Fountain  of  Youth," 
which  resulted  in  the  discovery  of  Florida,  and  it  was  on 
his  return  from  this  voyage  that  he  built  the  castle  now 
called  Casa  Blanca.  It  was  from  this  castle  that  he  went 
out  on  his  last  voyage,  in  1521,  and  from  which  he  never 
(Came  back  alive.     Slain  by  an  Indian  arrow,  on  the  coast 


SIGHTS   IN   PUERTO   RICO  247 

of  Florida,  his  remains  were  borne  back  to  his  home  in 
San  Juan,  where  they  have  been  kept  in  a  leaden  case, 
in  the  church  of  Santo  Domingo. 

Such  are  some  of  the  fascinating  historical  reminis- 
cences that  recur  to  one,  while  looking  out,  from  the 
citadel  or  from  Casa  Blanca,  down  upon  the  beautiful 
bay  which  has  been  the  scene  of  world-renowned  exploits. 
There  is  no  other  such  spot  within  the  confines  of  our 
country  where  such  great  names  are  linked  with  such 
deeds  and  scenery. 

Within  the  walls  of  the  city  are  gathered  about  20,000 
people,  with  perhaps  half  as  many  more  in  the  suburbs 
outside  ;  and  it  is  among  these  natives  that  the  visitor  will 
find  much  material  of  interest  for  note-bcok  and  camera. 

Although  brought  within  the  restraints  of  American 
rule,  the  natives  still  hanker  for  the  pleasures  of  the  bull- 
fight and  cock-pit,  and  Sunday  is  their  chiefest  holiday. 
But  they  are  mild  and  courteous,  even  the  raggedest  of 
them,  and  (unless  their  opinion  changes)  seem  to  think 
the  conquering  Americanos  the  greatest  people  on  earth. 
It  is  in  the  plazas  and  the  market-places  that  they  should 
be  studied,  where  many  of  the  poorer  people  come  with 
the  produce  of  field  and  garden,  and  the  richer  come  to 
buy.  They  are  thoroughly  Hispanicized,  like  their  archi- 
tecture, which  is  well  adapted  to  the  exigencies  of  the 
tropical  climate. 

It  was  on  the  i8th  of  October,  1898,  that  the  Stars  and 
Stripes  first  flew  officially  above  the  ramparts  of  San  Juan 
and  the  Morro.  On  that  day,  at  noon,  the  United  States 
Commissioners,  General  Brooke,  Admiral  Schley,  and 
General  Gordon,  met  the  officials  designated  by  Spain, 
and  coming  out  of  the  palace  with  many  naval  officers, 
formed  on  the  right  side  of  the  plaza.     At  the  report  of 


248        OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

the  first  gun  from  the  Morro,  the  flag  of  our  country 
was  hoisted,  while  the  band  played  the  *'  Star  Spangled 
Banner."  It  was  not  until  the  ist  of  May,  1900,  that 
military  rule  in  Puerto  Rico  was  replaced,  and  the  first 
civil  governor,  Mr.  Allen,  a  native  of  Massachusetts,  was 
installed.  The  ceremony  took  place  at  the  palace,  where 
the  Spanish  governor  general  had  once  resided,  and  was 
a  function  of  considerable  importance. 

The  governor  general's  palace,  built  upon  the  "  plata- 
forma  "  of  Santa  Catalina,  San  Juan,  is  now,  as  it  was 
under  the  Spanish  regime,  the  official  residence  of  the 
military  commander-in-chief  and  civil  governor.  It  is  a 
large  and  handsome  structure,  adorned  with  marble  and 
elegantly  furnished. 

There  are  interesting  suburbs  within  easy  reach  of  the 
capital,  such  as  Rio  Piedras  and  Carolina,  connected  by 
tramway,  the  former  with  about  a  thousand  inhabitants, 
a  theater,  casa  de  recrco,  or  country  palace  for  the  author- 
ities, etc.,  and  beyond  which  runs  the  great  military  road 
to  Ponce.  Then  there  is  the  hamlet  of  San  Turce,  the 
pretty  suburb  of  Cangrejos,  with  its  summer  gardens  and 
summer  houses,  and  across  the  bay  the  quaint  Catafio  and 
Bayamon,  in  a  district  where  lie  the  ruins  of  the  first  set- 
tlement, Caparra. 

A  week  might  well  be  passed  in  and  about  San  Juan, 
but  two  or  three  days  will  suffice  to  exhaust  its  major 
attractions ;  though  the  time  is  coming  when  the  city  will 
be  chosen  as  an  all-the-winter  resort,  with  its  equable 
temperature  of  from  75  to  80  degrees,  its  cool  sea  breezes 
from  the  northeast  "  trades,"  and  its  most  fascinating 
architecture. 

The  coast  views  are  glorious,  and  may  be  enjoyed 
from  the  decks  of  comfortable  steamers,  or  while  travel- 


SIGHTS    IN    PUERTO    RICO  249 

ing  by  rail  on  land.  A  comprehensive  railway  system 
was  at  one  time  projected  around  the  entire  island,  to  be 
more  than  300  miles  in  length,  the  first  section  being  from 
San  Juan  to  Camuy,  62  miles,  passing  through  the  flour- 
ishing town  of  Arecibo,  in  the  roadstead  of  which  the 
steamers  stop  for  cargoes  of  sugar,  coming  out  of  the 
fertile  valley  that  here  descends  from  the  Utuado  moun- 
tains. The  main  stream,  at  the  mouth  of  which  lies 
Arecibo,  is  fed  by  numerous  others,  which  form  beautiful 
cascades  and  are  overhung  with  luxuriant  vegetation, 
while  seven  miles  distant  is  a  great  cave,  which  is  locally 
famous. 

Aguadilla,  the  west  end  of  the  island,  is  the  port  at 
which  Columbus  landed  in  1493,  and  is  famous  for  its 
fruits,  flowers,  and  tropical  scenery.  Off  in  the  channel 
between  Puerto  Rico  and  Santo  Domingo  rises  the  soli- 
tary and  unique  island,  Mona,  or  the  Monkey,  which 
gives  its  name  to  the  Mona  Passage  between  the  two 
larger  islands.  It  is  apparently  of  volcanic  origin,  its 
shores  rising  perpendicularly  to  a  great  height,  and  at 
the  north  end  is  a  bold  headland  capped  by  an  overhang- 
ing mass  of  rock  with  the  suggestive  name  of  Caigo  0 
no  Caigo — "Shall  I  fall  or  not?"  A  few  half  savage 
fishermen,  wild  goats,  bulls,  and  swine,  inhabit  the  island, 
while  waterfowl  innumerable  make  it  their  home. 

Next  south  from  Aguadilla  is  Mayaguez,  a  larger  city, 
ranking  the  third  in  the  island  after  Ponce  and  San  Juan 
as  a  commercial  center,  exporting  large  quantities  of  cof- 
fee, pineapples,  and  cocoanuts.  The  contiguous  moun- 
tains reduce  the  temperature  to  less  than  eighty  degrees 
throughout  the  year,  and  send  down  delightful  streams, 
among  them  the  River  Mayaguez,  the  sands  of  which  at 
on^.  time  yielded  gold. 


250        OUR  WEST   INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

Beyond  Mayaguez  lies  the  straggling  village  of 
Hormigueros,  eight  miles  from  which  is  the  city  of  San 
German,  which  lies  astride  a  long,  uneven  hill  above  the 
double  valley  of  Boqueron-Juanajibos,  and  has  been  com- 
pared to  a  vast  garden,  filled  with  orange,  lemon,  and 
tamarind  trees,  coffee,  cotton,  cacao,  and  sugar-cane. 

Sixteen  miles  southeast  of  San  German  is  the  hamlet  of 
Yauco,  connected  by  railroad  with  the  city  of  Ponce.  It 
has  a  fine  climate  and  good  water,  and  has  a  cart  road  to 
the  port  of  Guanica,  which  has  a  population  of  about 
looo  people.  The  port,  in  fact,  is  better  known  than  the 
town,  for  it  was  here  that  General  Miles  landed  his  troops, 
in  July,  1898,  when  for  the  first  time  Puerto  Rico  was 
invaded  by  the  Americans.  Here  began  those  military 
operations  which  took  our  soldiers  as  far  as  Mayaguez, 
and  subsequently  from  the  port  of  Ponce  to  Aybonito  on 
the  military  road. 

Ponce,  which  bears  the  name  of  the  first  Adelantado,  is 
the  chief  city  of  the  island,  and  has  the  most  numerous 
population.  It  cannot  be  considered  an  attractive  city, 
situated  as  it  is  three  miles  from  its  port  right  down  in  a 
dusty  plain ;  but  it  may  be  worth  visiting  for  the  sake  of 
comparison  with  other  places. 

The  central  feature  of  Ponce  is  its  plaza,  in  the  center 
of  which  is  the  Parque  de  Bomhas,  or  firemen's  parade 
ground,  where  the  bomberos  frequently  come  out  for 
exercise,  in  all  the  pomp  of  uniforms  and  with  antiquated 
"  tubs."  Without  the  picturesque  accessories  of  San 
Juan,  Ponce  yet  holds  its  own,  its  houses  being  well  built, 
and  its  markets  well  supplied.  During  the  heydey  of 
Spanish  occupation  it  boasted  three  fine  hotels,  three  large 
military  barracks,  two  excellent  hospitals,  two  or  three 
casinos,  a  municipal  library,  a  bank,  a  home-of-refuge, 


SIGHTS  IN  PUERTO  RICO  251 

two  churches  (mcluding  the  only  Protestant  church  in 
the  island),  a  town  hall,  parks,  plazas,  gas  works,  and  two 
cemeteries.  One  of  the  first  centers  of  population  to  feel 
and  yield  to  American  impressions.  Ponce  soon  forged 
ahead  at  a  lively  pace,  and  promised  great  things  for  the 
incoming  foreigners. 

Here  you  will  find  some  of  the  best  schools  in  the 
island,  which  were  established  under  American  super- 
vision. If  there  is  one  thing  more  than  another  that 
strikes  the  visitor  with  surprise,  it  is  the  wonderful  ad- 
vance the  native  pupils  of  the  average  schools  have 
made  in  the  acquisition  of  English.  It  was,  to  be  sure,  a 
novelty,  and  they  seized  upon  it  with  avidity;  but  aside 
from  this,  it  is  an  admitted  fact  that  the  Puerto  Rican 
children  are  remarkably  bright  and  acquisitive.  This  is 
shown  by  the  fact  that  they  mastered  in  six  months  all  the 
studies  usually  allotted  for  a  year  in  the  schools  of  their 
grade  in  the  States.  This  precocity  does  not  necessarily 
indicate  a  high  degree  of  intelligence,  but  rather  an  apti- 
tude for  elementary  learning.  There  is  no  discrimination 
in  the  schools  on  account  of  birth  or  color,  for  these  new 
neighbors  of  ours  are  strictly  democratic  in  the  best  sense 
of  the  term. 

As  to  the  teachers,  most  of  whom  are  natives  of  Puerto 
Rico,  it  may  be  said  that  they  are  competent,  faithful, 
conscientious,  and  earnest  in  their  endeavors  to  bring 
their  work  up  to  the  American  models.  Several  hundred 
of  them  visited  the  United  States  in  the  summer  of  1904, 
for  the  purpose  of  study  and  sight-seeing.  Photographs 
of  the  native  teachers,  as  well  as  of  the  pupils,  indicate 
that  a  large  proportion  of  the  island's  population  shows 
traces  of  negro  or  Indian  blood;  yet  there  are  many 
families  directly  descended  from  ancestry  of  high  degree 


252        OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

in  Spain,  as  well  as  others  of  French,  German,  and  Italian 
lineage.  Nearly  all  are  of  a  pronounced  brunette  type, 
the  blonde  being  a  rarity,  as  in  old  Spain.  If  there  are 
any  characteristics  for  which  the  ladies  are  distinguished, 
they  are  amiability,  intelligence,  and  sweetness  of  disposi- 
tion. They  are  not  now  so  rigidly  secluded  and  guarded 
as  their  sex  in  the  mother  country,  especially  since  the 
advent  of  the  Americans;  but  the  best  of  them  were  not 
often  seen  outside  their  houses  in  the  daytime,  except  at 
some  festive  or  religious  function,  when  they  were  usually 
accompanied  by  attendants. 

It  is  not  often  that  one  may  ride  from  the  coast  of  an 
island  to  the  summit  of  a  mountain  nearly  three  thousand 
feet,  over  easy  gradients  and  without  fatigue;  but  one  may 
do  it  here.  One  of  the  most  creditable  works  here  of  the 
Spanish  engineers  (perhaps  the  greatest  since  the  fortifi- 
cations of  San  Juan  were  built)  is  this  wonderful  highway 
across  the  island,  connecting  the  two  chief  ports  of  Puerto 
Rico.  The  island  itself  is  only  one  hundred  miles  in 
length  by  about  thirty  in  breadth,  and  the  distance 
between  Ponce  and  San  Juan  not  over  60  miles,  in  a 
straight  line;  but  as  the  high  mountain  chain  lies  between 
them  (and  owing,  as  some  say,  to  the  fact  that  the  road 
was  built  on  contract,  by  the  mile)  the  connecting  high- 
way is  about  85  miles  in  total  length. 

The  capital  is  due  northeast  from  Ponce,  but  for  nearly 
half  the  distance  out  from  the  former  the  course  is  almost 
south,  with  many  a  curve  and  twist,  and  then  westerly, 
gradually  approaching  the  southern  coast.  Although  the 
Spaniards  are  not  celebrated  as  road-builders,  nor  for  the 
attainments  of  their  engineers,  yet  this  road  is  a  monu- 
ment to  Spanish  pluck  and  skill. 

The  first  place  of  importance  is  the  hamlet  of  Coamo, 


SIGHTS  IN   PUERTO  RICO  253 

which  has  most  wonderful  medico-mineral  springs,  sup- 
plying the  baths  of  an  establishment  which  has  existed 
for  centuries,  known  as  the  "  Bafios  de  Coamo."  The 
water  is  thermal,  clear,  and  limpid,  with  strong  sulphur- 
ous odor,  and  gushes  forth  in  great  volume. 

Coam.o  was  entered  by  American  troops,  pressing  up 
from  Ponce,  in  August,  1898,  and  was  quickly  captured 
without  resistance.  It  Hes  at  an  elevation  above  the  sea 
so  great  that  the  breezes  from  the  coasts  are  now  appreci- 
ably cooler;  but  the  highest  point  is  reached  at  Aybonito 
(or  Aibonito,  meaning  "  How  Beautiful !'),  which  is 
3000  feet  above  the  city  we  left  in  the  morning.  As 
Aybonito  is  about  midway  the  journey,  it  would  be  an 
agreeable  resting-place  for  the  night,  even  though  its 
buildings  are  not  in  keeping  with  its  natural  charms.  At 
this  elevation,  nearly  half  a  mile  above  the  sea  in  perpen- 
dicular height,  will  be  found  much  to  enchain  the  atten- 
tion of  the  traveler. 

It  was  at  Aybonito,  the  middle  of  August,  1898,  that 
the  news  reached  our  army  of  occupation  of  the  signing 
of  the  protocol  that  terminated  hostilities  between  the 
United  States  and  Spain. 

At  Aybonito  we  have  reached  an  altitude  equal  to  half 
that  of  Mount  Washington,  yet  as  it  is  within  the  tropics 
we  find — instead  of  chilly  winds,  snow  and  ice,  that  half 
the  year  make  the  latter  impossible  of  ascent — the  flow- 
ers and  plants  of  spring  and  summer  time.  We  have  left 
behind  us  the  heated  coast,  with  its  fields  of  sugar  cane 
and  groves  of  cocoa  palms,  and  are  now  in  a  region  where 
the  temperature  is  equable  and  delightful.  The  road  dips 
into  valleys  and  sweeps  around  the  slopes  of  hills,  cross- 
ing roaring  streams  over  arched  bridges  of  solid  masonry, 
and  plunges  into  the  shade  of  sweet-scented  forests.    We 


254        OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

are  now  in  the  region  of  coffee,  cacao,  tobacco,  and  the 
royal  pahn,  where  the  possibiHties  for  agricultural  opera- 
tions seem  limitless,  though  not  half  developed. 

Passing  over  the  crest  that  divides  the  southern  from 
the  northern  slopes,  with  their  hundreds  of  streams  flow- 
ing in  different  directions,  we  descend  towards  the  ham- 
let of  Cayey,  which  is  2300  feet  above  the  sea,  and  only 
37  miles  distant  from  San  Juan.  Here  a  road  branches 
off  to  the  coast,  passing  through  Guayama  to  Arroyo. 
Cayey  has  a  delightful  climate,  and  is  a  favorite  resort 
with  those  who  wish  to  escape  the  heat  of  the  coast. 

About  the  same  distance  from  Cayey  as  the  latter  place 
is  from  Aybonito,  lies  the  town  of  Caguas,  at  a  lower 
elevation,  and  the  junction-point  of  several  mountain 
roads,  including  one  from  Humacao  and  the  southeast 
coast.  All  along  the  line,  connecting  with  the  great  high- 
way at  intervals,  are  roads  and  bridle-trails,  which  lead 
away  into  fascinating  tcrroc  incognita,  to  secluded  valleys 
and  isolated  mountain  peaks,  which  one  is  constantly 
tempted  to  explore.  Horses  and  guides  are  not  difificult 
to  obtain,  and  if  one  should  desire  to  break  away  from 
the  paths  of  civilization  and  devote  a  few  weeks  to  that 
unknown  interior  country,  the  adventure  would  be  well 
rewarded. 


XVI 
THE  DANISH   ISLANDS  AND  VIRGINS 

How  Uncle  Sam  dashed  the  hopes  of  the  Danes — Charlotte 
Amalia's  peerless  port — Some  ports  of  Puerto  Rico — 
Culebra  as  a  coaling  station — Santa  Cruz  and  its  scenery — 
When  the  "  Monongahela  "  went  ashore — Saint  John  and  its 
haven,  Coral  Bay — An  island  of  spices  and  fragrant  forests 
— The  attractiveness  of  Saint  Thomas — Its  capital  and  chief 
port,  Charlotte  Amalia — How  Saint  Thomas  has  changed, 
for  the  better  and  worse — Its  harbor  compared  with  that  of 
San  Juan — Best  in  the  West  Indies  as  a  coaling  and  refitting 
station  for  war-ships — The  attempt  made  by  President  Lin- 
coln and  Secretary  Seward  to  secure  it — Denmark's  price 
and  America's  offer — An  affair  that  dragged  through  three 
administrations — When  the  King  of  Denmark  said  farewell 
to  his  West-Indian  subjects;  and  then  took  them  back — 
What  the  latter  think  of  Americans — Visits  to  Tortola, 
Virgin  Gorda,  and  Anegada. 

WHEN  Uncle  Sam  appropriated  Puerto  Rico, 
as  his  reward  for  services  rendered  to  Spain 
in  divesting  her  of  Cuba,  he  dashed  the 
hopes  of  three  islands  in  the  Virgin  group,  lying  fifty 
or  sixty  miles  to  the  eastward.  These  islands  are  Saint 
Thomas,  Saint  John,  and  Santa  Cruz,  the  inhabitants 
of  which  had  been  casting  sheep's  eyes  at  the  United 
States  for  several  years,  hoping  we  would  go  down 
and  possess  them.  Severally  and  collectively,  they  can 
boast  many  and  varied  charms;  but  the  chief  inducement 
they  had  to  offer  was  the  peerless  harbor  of  Charlotte 

255 


256       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

Amalia,  in  Saint  Thomas.  At  first  the  Danes  asked  fif- 
teen millions  for  it,  then  ten,  then  dropped  to  seven,  with 
the  three  islands  ''  thrown  in  " ;  but  when  the  harbor  of 
San  Juan  fell  to  us,  as  part  and  parcel  of  the  Puerto  Rican 
conquest,  it  was  no  longer  needed.  For  we  then 
had  not  only  San  Juan,  but  the  entire  island  of  Puerto 
Rico,  ten  times  as  large  as  Saint  Thomas,  and  vastly  more 
fertile,  with  a  population  of  900,000,  the  traditional  "thou- 
sand hills  " — with  cattle  on  them,  too — sugar  and  coffee 
lands,  rivers  and  harbors. 

Intrinsically  considered,  the  Danish  West  Indies  are  of 
small  account  to  the  rest  of  the  world,  but  through  their 
geographical  position  they  are  of  inestimable  value  to  a 
portion  of  it.  Strategically,  they  hold  the  key  to  the 
West  Indian  and  South  American  situation  in  case  of 
war;  they  control,  or  may  be  made  so  as  to  control,  the 
ocean  pathway  from  our  Atlantic  ports  to  the  projected 
Isthmian  Canal,  which  in  the  future  will  be  an  appre- 
ciable factor  in  forming  an  estimate  of  values.  They  are 
situated  within  the  tropics,  and  consequently  beyond  the 
ken  of  the  average  American  citizen,  who  generally  has 
contempt  for  things  not  within  the  range  of  his  vision. 
Tropical  they  are,  in  situation  and  production;  yet  they 
are  not  physically  volcanic,  and  have  produced  nothing 
worse  than  tidal  waves  and  hurricanes. 

The  largest  member  of  the  Danish  West  Indian  group 
is  Santa  Cruz,  or  Sainte  Croix,  depending  upon  whether 
the  original  Spanish  name  bestowed  by  Columbus  is 
chosen,  or  the  more  recent  French.  Largest  of  the  trio, 
being  19  miles  in  length  by  5  in  breadth,  Santa  Cruz  is 
also  the  most  fertile,  yielding  vast  crops  of  sugar  cane 
and  some  coffee;  level  in  the  main,  with  only  one  eleva- 
tion over  locx)  feet;  containing  a  population  of  about 


DANISH   ISLANDS  AND  VIRGINS        257 

25,cxxD  people,  more  than  half  of  whom  are  to  be  found 
in  the  two  towns  of  Christian  and  Frederichstaed. 

Santa  Cruz  has  a  reputation  (achieved  by  a  single 
swoop  of  a  hurricane  and  tidal- wave  combined)  which 
it  may  never  outlive.  It  was  acquired  in  1867,  when  the 
old  ''  Monongahela,"  United  States  war-ship  of  that 
period,  broad  of  waist  and  rotund  as  to  bows,  was  sent 
high  and  dry  ashore  by  the  forces  aforementioned,  and 
landed  in  a  roadway  quite  a  distance  from  the  sea  at  its 
normal  level.  Not  a  small  amount  of  money  was  neces- 
sary to  return  the  old  tub  to  her  aqueous  habitat ;  but  the 
feat  was  accomplished,  and  she  sailed  away,  to  return 
again  after  many  years  and  receive  a  royal  welcome. 

The  island  has  proved  so  attractive  to  several  Amer- 
icans that  they  have  forsworn  allegiance  to  their  flag 
and  settled  down  here  in  the  midst  of  bucolic  delights. 
There  are  many  things  to  allure,  many  to  conjoin  in  fix- 
ing a  foreigner  to  the  soil,  particularly  if  one  be  in  search 
of  the  dolce  far  niente — for  this  is  its  home,  they  say. 

The  "smallest  of  these  tropical  Danes  is  Saint  John, 
which  is  only  eight  miles  by  four  in  area,  or  just  about 
one-half  the  size  of  Santa  Cruz.  It  is  more  rugged, 
however,  is  watered  by  numerous  small  streams,  and  its 
hills  are  covered  with  second-growth  forests  of  woods 
like  the  bay  and  cinnamon,  wild  coffee,  and  mahogany, 
the  infrequent  plantations  devoted  to  sugar  cane  being 
sandwiched  in  between.  Its  total  population  will  not 
exceed  2000,  all  the  people,  with  very  few  exceptions, 
being  poor,  and  nearly  all  black,  or  colored,  as  to 
complexion. 

Saint  John,  with  its  fragrant  forests  and  numerous 
beaches  of  snowy  sand,  would  be  beyond  all  price  were  it 
more  accessible ;  but  at  present  it  languishes  in  an  obscur- 


25S       OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

ity  which  has  been  unbroken  for  centuries.  Only  in  the 
good  old  buccaneer  times  was  Saint  John  well  known, 
for  it  possessed,  as  it  now  possesses,  a  pearl  of  price  in 
its  landlocked  haven  known  as  Coral  Bay.  It  is  doubtful 
if  the  waters  of  this  secluded  haven  were  ever  cleft  by 
keel  of  craft  larger  than  the  droghers  that  sometimes  flit 
along  these  islands  coastwise,  but  within  its  confining 
hills,  it  is  said,  a  small  navy  might  find  shelter. 

It  is  reckoned  as  hurricane  proof — that  is,  a  safe 
anchorage  during  the  season  between  July  and  Novem- 
ber, when  the  tropic  cyclones  rage.  It  is  a  triple  harbor, 
sheltered  by  a  lofty  promontory,  with  good  anchorages 
in  nearly  every  part,  and  with  a  depth  of  thirteen  fathoms. 
These  facts  are  mentioned  because  it  is  for  the  harbors 
they  contain,  and  not  for  what  their  soil  may  be  made  to 
bring  forth,  or  their  people  contribute,  that  these  islands 
are  esteemed  as  of  prospective  value  to  the  United  States. 

There  is  still  another  island  in  this  trio  which  owns 
a  harbor  far  outclassing  any  other  in  that  portion  of  the 
world.  While  both  Santa  Cruz  and  Saint  John  possess 
many  natural  attractions,  their  companion  isle.  Saint 
Thomas,  has  received  far  more  attention  than  either. 
Saint  Thomas  is  only  thirteen  miles  in  length  by  three 
or  four  in  breadth,  and  has  neither  the  fertility  of  Santa 
Cruz  nor  the  beauty  of  Saint  John,  its  soil  having  long 
since  been  washed  from  the  hills  by  torrential  rains  and 
its  forests  having  been  converted  into  charcoal,  centuries 
agone.  But  it  has  color  and  contour,  and  directly  beneath 
its  central  ridge,  about  1500  feet  in  height,  lies  the  famous 
town  of  Charlotte  Amalia,  in  a  hollow  of  the  hills,  the 
buttresses  of  which  run  out  into  the  sea  and  half  inclose 
its  peerless  harbor. 

There  is  no  more  picturesque  town  in  all  the  West 


DANISH  ISLANDS  AND  VIRGINS        S59 

Indies  than  Charlotte  Amalla,  and  this  is  saying  much 
when  one  has  seen  Havana  and  San  Juan,  Port  au 
Prince,  and  Santo  Domingo.  Built  upon  and  between 
three  rounded  hills,  one  of  which  is  topped  by  a  castle 
of  buccaneer  origin,  with  red-roofed  houses  standing  in 
the  midst  of  beautiful  gardens  reached  by  tortuous  flights 
of  steps,  and  with  cocoa  palms  leaning  over  the  beaches 
that  border  the  bay,  Charlotte  Amalia  is  a  shining 
example  of  what  a  West  Indian  town  may  become  when 
it  has  the  benefit  of  an  unexampled  location.  It  used  to 
be  scourged  with  cholera  and  yellow  fever  and  it  also 
used  to  be  rich  and  running  over  with  Mexican  dollars; 
but  now  it  is  tolerably  healthful  and  undeniably  poverty- 
stricken;  for  a  short  cut  through  a  coral  reef  created  a 
current  for  the  stagnant  waters  of  its  harbor,  and  the  sub- 
stitution of  steam  for  sails  has  carried  ofif  its  commerce. 

It  always  was,  and  still  is,  a  free  port,  and  every  article 
from  foreign  parts  is  cheap;  but  the  bulk  of  Charlotte 
Amalia's  population  purchases  little  from  foreign  parts, 
owing  to  the  fact  that  it  has  nothing  to  purchase  with. 
The  barrows  laden  with  dollars  that  were  once  trundled 
through  the  streets  have  long  since  been  trundled  out  of 
sight,  and  the  chink  of  silver  is  rarely  heard  by  the  aver- 
age citizen  of  the  capital,  which,  as  it  includes  nearly  all 
the  total  of  13,000,  may  be  said  to  represent  the  island. 

But,  poor  and  despised  as  Saint  Thomas  has  become, 
it  still  retains  its  hold  upon  that  magnificent  harbor  into 
which  the  Danish  Charlotte  dips  her  dainty  feet.  Its 
average  depth  is  more  than  six  fathoms,  its  entrance  is 
open  and  about  half  a  mile  across,  while  within  it  is  a 
mile  in  breadth  and  with  sufficient  accommodation  for  at 
least  one  hundred  sail.  On  its  west  side  is  the  "  careen- 
ing cove,"  where  there  is  a  large  floating  dock  and  a  depth 


26o        OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

of  more  than  twenty  feet  of  water.  On  every  side  rises 
a  hill,  except  to  the  southward,  where  Hes  Santa  Gruz, 
forty  miles  away,  and,  according  to  naval  experts,  the 
harbor  might  be  made  a  veritable  Gibraltar,  with  com- 
paratively little  expense  to  whatever  government  owned 
it.  At  present  there  are  diminutive  forts  perched  on  the 
hills  that  guard  the  harbor  mouth,  and  down  at  the  water- 
edge  of  the  town  stands  a  small  red  fort  with  rusty  iron 
guns  pointed  in  aimless  manner  at  the  heavens  above. 

This  is  the  harbor  so  highly  commended  by  Admiral 
David  D.  Porter,  many  years  ago,  who  told  Gharles 
Sumner  that  there  was  none  other  in  the  West  Indies  so 
well  fitted  for  a  naval  station.  As  to  its  location,  he  said, 
it  lies  right  in  the  track  of  all  vessels  from  Europe,  Brazil, 
the  East  Indies,  and  the  Pacific  Ocean  bound  to  the  West 
Indies  or  the  United  States.  He  called  it  "  the  keystone 
to  the  arch  of  the  West  Indies,"  as  it  commanded  them 
all,  and  added  that  it  would  be  of  more  importance  to  the 
United  States  than  to  any  other  nation. 

The  harbor  of  San  Juan  looks  northwardly,  that  of  St. 
Thomas  opens  southwardly;  the  one  is  already  defended 
by  massive  fortifications,  but  the  other  can  be  made  far 
safer  by  one-tenth  the  expenditure  made  by  the  Spaniards 
at  San  Juan  during  three  centuries.  Captain  G.  V.  Fox, 
of  our  Navy,  once  reported :  "  This  harbor  of  St.  Thomas 
is  one  of  the  best  in  the  West  Indies,  admirable  for  naval 
purposes,  and  fully  equal  to  all  the  requirements  of  the 
commerce  of  those  seas.  .  .  The  eminent  strategic, 
geographical,  and  commercial  position  which  St.  Thomas 
occupies  arrests  the  attention  of  the  most  casual  observer 
of  the  world's  chart." 

This  much  as  to  the  location  of  the  harbor;  now  let  us 
inquire  into  the  movement  made  at  one  time  toward  its 


DANISH  ISLANDS  AND  VIRGINS       .261 

acquisition  by  the  United  States.  There  was  one  Power, 
during  the  dark  days  of  the  American  Civil  War,  always 
consistently  friendly,  and  that  was  little  Denmark,  whose 
ports  were  open  to  our  war-ships  on  the  same  terms  that 
others  obtained.  Notably  free  to  our  naval  commanders 
was  the  port  of  Charlotte  Amalia,  and  there  was  estab- 
lished a  coal  yard  for  the  use  of  our  ships.  It  was  the 
one  port  to  which  we  could  have  free  access,  and,  what 
is  more  to  the  point — egress,  when  a  Confederate  cruiser 
or  blockade  runner,  having  availed  itself  of  this  port  for 
coaling  and  refitting,  was  about  to  depart. 

When,  therefore,  a  coaling  station  was  thought  of,  and 
the  subject  broached  to  President  Lincoln,  in  January, 
1865,  it  was  with  the  Island  of  St.  Thomas  in  mind  that 
Secretary  Seward  "  broke  ground."  He  lost  no  time  in 
sounding  the  views  of  the  Danish  minister  at  Washing- 
ton, and  in  inducing  him  to  communicate  with  his  govern- 
ment. He  and  Mr.  Lincoln  had  agreed  upon  this  partic- 
ular island  of  St.  Thomas,  for  the  reason  that  it  was  most 
commandingly  situated  as  to  the  other  West  Indian 
islands ;  also,  it  belonged  to  a  nation  friendly  and,  what  is 
of  importance,  impecunious.  It  was  shrewdly  con- 
jectured, by  our  astute  Secretary  of  State,  that  Denmark 
might  wish  to  sell  this  outlying  possession  of  hers,  for 
reasons  of  her  own;  at  all  events,  that  she  would  entertain 
the  proposition  in  a  friendly  spirit.  It  so  happened  that 
Denmark  was  in  need  of  several  millions  of  dollars  to 
strengthen  her  defenses;  at  the  same  time  she  did  not 
dare  risk  ofifending  her  sister  powers  by  openly  assenting 
to  a  sale  of  even  so  small  a  portion  of  her  territories  as 
that  bit  of  earth  and  rock  in  the  far  Caribbean  Sea. 

But  her  objections  were  finally  overcome,  although  she 
was  very  coy  at  first,  and  insisted  upon  knowing  just  how 


262       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

much  Uncle  Sam  was  willing  to  pay  for  her  West  Indian 
Islands  before  proceeding  further.  Her  minister  was 
instructed  to  obtain  a  reply,  when  there  intervened  that 
terrible  tragedy  by  which  our  nation  lost  its  President, 
and  Mr.  Seward  himself  was  prostrated  by  the  hand  of 
a  would-be  assassin.  A  natural  delicacy  prevented  the 
subject  from  being  reopened  by  the  Danish  minister,  and 
it  was  not  until  January,  1866,  that  Mr.  Seward,  having 
meanwhile  made  a  voyage  to  the  West  Indies  for  the 
restoration  of  his  health,  resumed  negotiations.  He  had 
visited  St.  Thomas,  and  all  his  previous  impressions  as  to 
its  being  a  desirable  acquisition  for  our  government  were 
confirmed. 

A  basis  of  negotiation  was  finally  secured,  and  our 
minister  at  Copenhagen  was  instructed  to  'ofifer  $5,000,- 
000  for  the  three  islands — St.  Thomas,  Santa  Cruz,  and 
St.  John.  This  olYer  was  declined,  but  Denmark  made  a 
counter  proposition,  offering  to  cede  the  three  islands  for 
$15,000,000,  or  St.  Thomas  and  St.  John  for  $10,000,000, 
with  an  option  of  Santa  Cruz  for  $5,000,000  more.  A 
compromise  was  finally  effected  at  $7,500,000  for  the  two 
first  named — St.  Thomas  and  St.  John.  It  was  in  July, 
1867,  that  Mr.  Seward  cabled  to  Copenhagen :  ''  Close 
with  Denmark's  offer !  St.  John,  St.  Thomas,  seven  and  a 
half  millions.     Send  treaty  ratified  immediately." 

But  the  Danes  are  a  leisurely  people,  and  it  was  not 
until  October  that  the  treaty  was  signed  and  concluded. 
Meanwhile  there  was  a  question  as  to  the  wishes  of  the 
inhabitants  of  the  islands  with  reference  to  a  transfer  of 
allegiance,  and  an  agent  was  sent  by  each  nation  for  the 
purpose  of  taking  a  plebiscite.  They  arrived  in  St. 
Thomas  about  the  middle  of  November,  1867  5  ^  ^^w  days 
later  occurred  a  terrible  earthquake  and  a  tidal-wave, 


V 


DANISH   ISLANDS  AND  VIRGINS       263 

which  have  become  matters  of  historical  importance,  inas- 
much as  the  tide  of  sentiment  in  the  United  States  was 
doubtless  turned  against  the  treaty.  It  is  not  known  that 
the  island  ever  experienced  a  similar  visitation  of  such 
terrible  character;  it  certainly  has  never  had  one  since. 
But  this  was  sufficient  to  set  in  motion  all  the  antagonistic 
elements  of  earth  and  sea,  as  if  the  very  stars  and  planets 
fought  against  the  project. 

Notwithstanding  the  predictions  of  the  superstitious 
people  of  the  island,  however,  a  vote  was  taken,  which 
was  nearly  unanimous,  for  transfer  to  the  United  States. 
Considering  the  preliminary  convention  as  binding 
equally  upon  both  parties  to  the  agreement,  the  King  of 
Denmark  had  sent  out,  by  his  commissioner,  a  royal 
proclamation,  announcing  the  severance  of  their  relations, 
beginning : 

"We,  Christian  the  Ninth,  by  the  grace  of  God  King  of  Den- 
mark [etc.,  etc.],  send  to  our  beloved  and  faithful  subjects  of 
St.  Thomas  and  St.  John  our  royal  greeting.  We  have  resolved 
to  cede  our  islands  of  St.  Thomas  and  St.  John  to  the  United 
States  of  America,  and  have  to  that  end,  with  the  reservation  of 
the  constitutional  consent  of  our  rigsdad,  concluded  a  convention 
with  the  President  of  the  United  States." 

Concluding : 

"  With  sincere  sorrow  do  we  look  forward  to  the  severment  of 
those  ties  which  for  many  years  have  united  you  and  the  mother 
country,  and,  never  forgetting  the  many  demonstrations  of  loyalty 
and  affection  we  have  received  from  you,  we  trust  that  nothing 
has  been  neglected  upon  our  side  to  secure  the  future  welfare 
of  our  beloved  and  faithful  subjects,  and  that  a  mighty  impulse, 
both  moral  and  material,  will  be  given  to  the  happy  development 
of  the  islands  under  the  new  sovereignty.  Commending  you  to 
God. 

/ 


264       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

"Given  at  our  palace  of  Amalienborg,  the  25th  of  October, 

1867,  under  our  royal  hand  and  seal. 

''CHRISTIAN,   R." 

The  popular  vote  was  taken  on  the  9th  of  January, 

1868,  which  was  made  a  universal  holiday,  and  the  Amer- 
ican flag  substituted  for  the  Danish  on  every  point  of 
prominence,  tower,  and  hilltop. 

The  treaty  was  submitted  to  the  Danish  rigsdad,  and 
promptly  ratified,  the  king  affixing  his  signature  the  same 
day,  June  30,  1868. 

The  position  of  Denmark,  acting  in  good  faith,  and 
presupposing  that  the  United  States  would  do  the  same, 
now  seemed  irrevocable.  She  had  offended  several  of 
her  mightier  neighbors,  Germany,  France,  England,  who 
looked  upon  this  acquisition  by  the  United  States  as 
prejudicial  to  their  interests. 

Over  the  subsequent  proceedings  we  must  draw  the 
veil  of  charity,  to  avoid  the  use  of  harsher  epithet;  for 
the  conclusion  of  this  chapter  is  by  no  means  creditable 
to  the  United  States.  Four  months  were  allowed  for  the 
ratification  of  the  treaty  by  our  Senate,  then  extended  to 
a  year;  again  extended  to  the  14th  of  April,  1870,  when 
the  committee  of  foreign  relations  recommended  suspen- 
sion of  action,  and  indorsed  it  adversely. 

The  afifair  had  dragged  through  three  administrations, 
and  had  been  the  sport  of  different  sessions  of  Congress, 
only  to  be  ignominiously  smothered  in  committee  and 
pigeonholed,  with  Denmark's  royal  signature  affixed  and 
the  ratification  of  her  Senate.  Thus  the  treaty  intention 
was  ignored ;  thus  the  King  of  Denmark  had  the  humilia- 
tion of  recalling  his  disappointed  but  still  loyal  subjects; 
and  the  flag  of  Dannebrog  yet  waves  over  the  islands  of 
St.  Thomas  and  St.  John. 


DANISH   ISLANDS  AND  VIRGINS        265 

Associated  as  it  has  been  with  pirates,  buccaneers, 
smugglers,  men-of-war,  and  men-of-peace,  the  harbor  of 
Saint  Thomas  has  seen  some  strange,  eventful  happen- 
ings. Having  sailed 'into  and  out  of  it  several  times,  it 
may  be  impossible  for  me  now  to  portray  it  as  it  should 
be,  the  novelty  having  worn  off;  but  in  another  book  of 
mine  (which  few,  if  any,  ever  read)  is  an  account  of  my 
first  impression,  which  I  fain  would  quote. 

It  may  be  night  when  the  steamer  arrives  at  the  harbor 
of  St.  Thomas,  but  the  land-breeze  brings  off  the  fra- 
grance of  a  thousand  flowers,  the  strange,  pungent  odors 
of  the  terrene  tropics,  and  you  know  that  a  new  land  is 
reached  at  last.  New  scenes  await  you,  if  it  be  your  first 
trip  to  the  tropics,  and  they  cannot  but  interest  and  de- 
light. 

Arriving  at  the  harbor  at  night,  one  might  well 
imagine  he  had  by  mistake  been  brought  to  the  borders  of 
the  infernal  region,  for  flaring  flambeaux  illumine  the 
dark  waters,  dusky  forms  glide  about  with  discordant 
cries,  yells,  and  whistlings.  A  weird  procession  of  black 
and  hideous  hags,  clad  in  ragged  raiment,  bearing  on 
their  heads  great  baskets,  and  shuffling  clumsily  up  and 
down  the  gang-planks,  has  established  connection  with 
the  shore  and  is  supplying  the  steamer  with  coal.  It  is 
merely  an  episode  in  the  life  of  the  voyager;  but  it  is  a 
matter  of  vast  importance  to  those  wretched  negresses, 
who  get  but  a  penny  a  basket  for  their  toil,  and  who  are 
always  ready,  by  night  and  by  day,  to  respond  to  the 
blast  from  the  great  horn  blown  by  the  contractor  from 
the  parapet  of  Bluebeard's  Castle,  on  the  hill  across  the 
harbor. 

Making  Charlotte  Amalia  headquarters,  many  a  pleas- 
ant trip  can  fee  taken  to  the  isles  and  islets  in  adjacent 


266        OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

waters,  being  sure  not  to  omit  beautiful  Saint  John,  nor 
quaint  and  almost  deserted  Tortola,  the  Isle  of  the  Dove ; 
nor  Virgin  Gorda,  the  "  Fat  Virgin,"  which  has  a  moun- 
tain 1300  feet  in  height  well  charged  with  gold  and  cop- 
per. The  extreme  tip  of  the  Caribbean  chain  crops  out 
at  Anegada,  the  "  Submerged  Island,"  which  lies  just 
north  of  Virgin  Gorda,  and  of  old,  like  all  the  other  Vir- 
gins, was  the  resort  of  buccaneers,  having  many  secluded 
coves  and  hidden  harbors  into  which  they  ran  their  ves- 
sels while  the  enemy  was  nigh.  This  island  is,  or  was, 
famous  for  its  great  Flamingo  Pond,  the  resort  of  the 
big  birds  in  pink  and  crimson  livery,  which  come  up  from 
the  Orinoco  regions  at  certain  seasons  of  the  year  and 
enliven  the  landscape  with  color. 

Great  veins  of  silver  and  copper  have  been  traced  at 
Gallows  Bay,  and  sometimes  old  coins  and  jewelry  are 
found  in  the  island,  worth  far  more  than  their  weight  in 
gold,  and  probably  left  there  by  the  pirates  who  used  to 
rendezvous  around  the  bay  named  after  Sir  Francis 
Drake. 


XVII 
THREE  LITTLE  DUTCH  ISLANDS 

Some  islands  decidedly  Dutch  —  The  northernmost  isles  of  the 
Caribbees  —  Where  to  find  the  West-Indian  volcanoes  —  Saba, 
an  island  unique  —  The  town  of  Bottom  in  its  crater-bowl  — 
Bonaparte's  Cocked  Hat  —  The  author's  adventures  in  Saba 
—  Left  at  the  Ladder  with  strangers  —  The  climb  to  the  town 
in  the  crater  —  Homes  of  the  sturdy  Dutch  sailors  —  Gardens 
two  thousand  feet  above  the  sea  —  Saba's  mountain  peak  and 
the  view  from  it  —  Northern  limit  of  the  garnet-throat  hum- 
ming-bird—  Sulphur  as  good  as  that  from  Sicily  —  Where 
the  beasts  of  burden  are  human  beings  —  In  a  land  of  yes- 
terday—  'Statia,  the  island  sacked  by  Lord  Rodney  —  Loot 
that  amounted  to  $15,000,000  —  A  place  that  few  travelers 
visit  —  Spending  a  night  on  a  crater-brim  —  A  hegira  of  the 
Hebrews  —  The  author's  passport  in  Dutch  —  The  first  salute 
paid  to  our  flag  by  foreign  people  —  Thirteen  an  unlucky 
number  for  'Statia  —  A  pendant  for  Miss  Columbia's  neck- 
lace—  Curasao,  on  the  Venezuelan  coast  —  Dutch  islands  and 
their  area  —  A  little  Dutch  Paradise  —  Papiamento,  the 
pepper-pot  language  —  The  harbor-lagoon  of  Curasao  —  How 
the  island  may  be  reached  —  A  near  neighbor  of  the  Lake 
Dwellers. 

SOUTHEAST  of  the  Saints  and  the  Virgins,which 
themselves  lie  to  the  eastward  of  Puerto  Rico, 
stretches  the  chain  of  volcanic  islands  known  as 
the  Lesser  Antilles.  They  are  included  within  latitude 
10  and  18  degrees  north,  and  are  arbitrarily  divided  into 
the  Leeward  and  the  Windward  groups,  the  former  lying 
to  the  north,  and  the  latter  to  the  south  of  north  latitiude 
15  degrees. 

267 


268        OUR  WEST   INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

The  new  moon  in  her  earUest  stages  describes  no  more 
nearly  perfect  crescent  than  this  "  string  of  emeralds  on  a 
silver  zone,"  which  those  prone  to  alliteration  term  "  the 
crescentic  chain  of  the  Caribbees."  Every  island  in  this 
chain,  beginning  with  diminutive  Saba  in  the  north,  and 
ending  with  Grenada  in  the  south,  is  volcanic  in  char- 
acter, and  the  chord  of  the  arc  they  collectively  describe 
is  about  three  hundred  and  sixty  miles  in  length.  Each 
island  is  practically  a  single  mountain  shot  up  from  the 
ocean  depths,  the  altitudes  varying  from  2000  to  5000 
feet,  and  so  evidently  volcanic  of  origin  that  one  may  not 
err  in  ascribing  it  to  old  Vulcan,  or  whoever  has  been 
allotted  to  perform  his  work  in  the  nether  world. 

Pinnacles,  mountain-tops,  spires,  thrust  up  through  the 
sea,  suggest  also  (as  remarked  in  Chapter  I)  the  remains 
of  a  lost  continent — or  perhaps  the  beginnings  of  a  newer 
one — and  around  them  we  may  well  weave  myths,  not 
only  Antillean,  but  Atlantean.  They  are  all  volcanoes,  in 
fact,  and  were  thought  to  be  extinct,  until  May,  1902, 
when  occurred  the  terrible  eruptions  in  Saint  Vincent  and 
Martinique,  by  which  thousands  of  homes  were  destroyed 
and  between  fifty  and  sixty  thousand  people  lost  their 
lives. 

At  all  events  the  silence  has  been  disturbed,  and  most 
effectually.  Atlantis  may  yet  appear  out  of  the  debris 
of  wrecked  isles  a  resurrected  continent,  above  the  sea, 
and  verify  the  Platonian  legend. 

But,  should  these  islands  be  destroyed,  and,  in  effect, 
disappear,  one  cannot  conceive  of  their  places  being  taken 
by  any  more  beautiful.  Doubtless  God  might  have  made 
better,  and  more  beautiful  isles — to  paraphrase  old  Wal- 
ton's remark  anent  a  certain  fruit — but  doubtless  God 
never  did;  or  if  He  did,  the  writer  never  saw  them.     As 


o 

a 
u 

U 


THREE  LITTLE  DUTCH  ISLANDS        269 

every  mountain  shoots  upward  abruptly  to  an  altitude 
that  gives  it  practically  the  range  of  two  climatic  zones, 
temperate  and  tropical,  every  beautiful  aspect  of  vegeta- 
tion may  be  noted  here.  The  sides  of  each  partially  sub- 
merged volcano,  from  base  to  peak,  and  even  some  of  the 
crater-walls,  are  hung  with  richest  tapestries  in  varying 
shades  of  green. 

The  northernmost  of  the  volcanic  islands — or  to  be 
exact,  the  northwesternmost — is  Saba,  a  mountain  rising 
above  the  ocean  floor  nobody  knows  how  many  thousand 
feet,  but  with  about  2800  of  them  sticking  up  above  the 
water.  What  nature  intended  it  should  become  when 
finished  is  not  evident,  for  it  seems  only  just  begun;  but 
it  is  a  Dutch  possession  now,  has  been  for  many  years, 
and  is  Holland's  smallest  property  in  the  West  Indies, 
perhaps  in  the  world. 

What  is  rare  in  these  islands,  the  majority  of  the  popu- 
lation are  white ;  and  not  only  white,  but  Dutch,  the  good 
old-fashioned  kind,  with  blue  eyes,  freckled  sandy  com- 
plexion, and  flaxen  hair.  There  are  Dutch  residents  in 
San  Martin,  Saint  Eustatius,  and  in  Aruba,  Bonaire,  and 
Curacao,  off  the  Venezuelan  coast ;  but  they  are  not  the 
sturdy,  clear-complexioned  Dutch  of  Saba  Island.  The 
secret  of  their  sturdiness  and  their  healthfulness  is  found 
in  the  altitude,  at  which  they  Hve ;  not  one  of  them  less 
than  800  or  900  feet  above  the  sea. 

In  fact,  when  Nature  made  Saba,  she  forgot  to  indent 
the  coast-line  with  a  harbor,  hardly  a  landing-place; 
least  of  all  a  spot  big  enough  to  build  a  house  on,  so  all 
the  Sabans  live  at  an  elevation  above  the  sea,  perforce,  of 
near  a  thousand  feet.  Nine  hundred  and  sixty  feet,  to 
be  exact,  is  the  height  of  the  town  of  Bottom  above  the 
sea.     That  is  where  most  of  the  Saba  people  live  (those 


270        OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

that  do  not  dwell  there  being  still  higher  up,  among  the 
crags  of  the  volcano).  The  town  of  Bottom  is  so  called 
because  it  lies  at  the  bottom  of  an  extinct  crater.  At 
least,  it  is  supposed  to  be  extinct,  and  will  probably  be 
considered  so,  until  some  day  the  victims  of  a  mistaken 
confidence  in  the  quiescence  of  a  volcano  may  find — if 
any  survive — that  the  real  bottom  of  the  crater  was  con- 
siderably below  the  level  of  their  settlement!  Their 
dwelling  here  in  fancied  security  illustrates  the  apathy 
that  possesses  all  those  who  take  up  their  residences  in 
precarious  places  merely  because  they  have  advantages 
over  others  less  exposed  to  danger.  They  know  well 
enough  that  the  volcano  towering  above  their  quaint  little 
town  once  went  on  a  rampage,  and  peppered  the  whole 
island  and  surrounding  sea  until  the  soil  of  the  former 
was  nearly  hidden  from  sight,  and  the  latter  made  to  boil 
like  a  witch's  caldron.  The  Saba  people  ought  to  know 
what  volcanic  rock  and  scoriae  are,  of  a  surety,  for  they 
have  had  to  painfully  clear  their  lands  of  both,  before 
planting  the  neat  little  gardens  that  surround  their  houses. 

Saba,  in  olden  times,  was  known  to  the  sailors  as 
"  Bonaparte's  Cocked  Hat,"  and  certes,  there  is  no 
quainter  country  in  the  world  than  this  same  speck  of  an 
island  in  the  Caribbean  Sea,  which  forms  one  of  the  links 
in  the  chain  connecting  North  and  South  America. 
Sweep  the  map  with  a  glance,  and  you  would  be  likely 
to  overlook  it  entirely,  so  snugly  is  it  sandwiched  in 
between  the  others ;  but  it  has  its  own  attractions,  never- 
theless. 

A  friend  of  mine,  a  geographer  and  man  of  learning, 
once  congratulated  me  as  the  only  man  he  had  ever  met 
who  had  visited  Saba,  and  declared  that  the  first  thing 
he  should  do  when  he  had  leisure  would  be  to  follow  in 


THREE  LITTLE  DUTCH  ISLANDS        271 

my  footsteps.  Be  that  as  it  may,  I  can  recall  that  no  land 
I  ever  set  foot  on  caused  me  to  thrill  with  such  satisfac- 
tion and  pleasure  as  when  at  last  I  found  earth  beneath 
me  in  Saba's  only  settlement.  Not  so  much  on  account 
of  the  quality  of  the  earth,  as  from  the  fact  that  it  was 
earth,  and  not  bounding  billows  or  tumultuous  seas.  For 
I  had  been  two  days  tossing  up  and  down  in  a  small 
drogher  plying  between  St.  Thomas  and  St.  Kitts,  and 
was  sick  nigh  unto  death,  when  we  sighted  Saba's  peak 
piercing  the  gloom  of  a  tropic  twilight. 

The  trade  wind  blew  fiercely  through  the  mountain 
gorges,  and  beat  us  off  from  the  island  again  and  again; 
but  at  last  we  got  in  near  enough  to  launch  a  boat,  into 
which  I  was  tumbled,  together  with  my  belongings.  Two 
stalwart  black  men  pulled  it  within  hail  of  the  shore, 
and  then,  instead  of  landing,  they  split  the  darkness 
with  shouts  for  help,  yelling  to  some  invisible  person 
in  the  clouds  to  "  come  down."  It  was  nearly  an 
hour  before  a  response  was  wafted  out  to  the  boat,  and 
quite  another  ere  someone  shouted  a  welcome  from  the 
base  of  the  frowning  cliffs.  He,  she,  or  it,  whoever  or 
whatever,  might  have  been  a  disembodied  spirit,  for  all 
we  knew,  for  nothing  could  be  seen  but  the  foaming 
breakers  on  the  shore  and  huge  bowlders,  dim  and  indis- 
tinct ;  but  in  we  went,  in  obedience  to  the  siren's  call. 

The  boat  shot  ahead  with  terrific  speed  straight  for 
the  rocks,  and  just  as  the  shock  of  the  impact  with  those 
rocks  sent  me  tumbling  heels  over  head,  a  strong  arm 
seized  me,  yanked  me  out  unceremoniously,  and  set  me 
upright  at  the  base  of  the  cliff.  The  process  had  been 
materially  assisted  by  a  thumping  wave,  which  had 
whelmed  the  boat  and  smacked  me  in  the  back,  at  the 
same  time  setting  my  luggage  all  afloat.     Other  strong 


272        OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

arms  pulled  the  boat  upon  the  rocks,  emptied  her  of  my 
effects  and  sent  her  back  again  on  the  breast  of  a  wave, 
before  I  had  wiped  the  salt  water  from  my  eyes.  So 
there  I  was,  alone  with  several  strange  folk,  number  un- 
determined until  a  lantern  was  lighted,  when  it  was  re- 
duced from  a  multitude  to  two. 

They  were  black,  both  of  them,  and  evidently  friendly, 
for  after  piling  my  luggage  at  the  foot  of  the  precipice 
they  took  me  by  the  arms  and  guided  me  to  what  they 
called  the  ''  Ladder,"  which  was  a  narrow  trail  up  the  side 
of  said  precipice.  It  was  fortunate  for  my  shattered 
nerves  that  the  darkness  hid  the  dangers  of  that  trail 
from  sight,  for  when  I  afterward  saw  it  by  daylight  no 
money  would  have  tempted  me  to  essay  it.  But  up  we 
went,  my  guides  climbing  like  goats  and  never  making 
a  misstep,  until  at  last  we  reached  a  path  which  was  not 
quite  so  steep  as  the  side  of  a  house,  and  I  sat  down  to 
breathe. 

My  sable  friends  assured  me  that  the  dangers  were 
passed,  and  they  told  me  that  of  the  two  landings  which 
the  island  possessed  this  was  the  worse.  When  the  wind 
was  west  they  used  the  eastward  landing,  called  the  Fort, 
and  when  it  was  east  they  used  the  Ladder ;  but  whichever 
was  used,  and  whatever  the  weather  or  wind,  the  sea  was 
nearly  always  rough. 

Here,  however,  the  sturdy  Dutch  sailors  of  Saba,  many 
of  whom  are  descended  from  men  who  had  sailed  with 
Van  Home  and  Von  Trompe,  when  these  seas  were 
infested  with  pirates  and  buccaneers,  had  resided  all  their 
lives.  It  was  lucky  for  Saba  that  most  of  them  met  their 
ends  at  sea,  for  really  there  is  not  soil  enough  there  to 
bury  them  in.  Still,  no  other  place  in  the  world  had  the 
attractions  for  them  held  by  this  small  islet,  and  if  per- 


THREE  LITTLE  DUTCH  ISLANDS        273 

chance  any  removed  to  other  parts  they  always  came 
back,  being  homesick  for  their  beloved  mountain  and  its 
crater. 

Faint  from  hunger  and  tottering  with  weakness,  I  was 
piloted  to  the  harbormaster's  house ;  for,  though  Saba  had 
no  harbor,  yet  it  had  an  official  who  drew  pay  as  captain 
of  the  port,  and  by  him,  after  I  had  satisfied  his  curiosity 
as  to  my  business,  my  birth,  and  my  respectability,  I  was 
permitted  to  sleep  on  his  floor.  Strangers  seldom  landed 
in  Saba,  and  the  last  one,  a  dozen  years  before,  had  come 
by  daylight  and  with  proper  credentials.  I  satisfied  him 
in  the  morning  as  to  credentials,  and  after  being  taken  to 
the  governmental  chief,  who  gave  me  a  passport  for  two 
guilders  permitting  me  to  reside  in  the  island  without 
molestation,  I  was  introduced  to  the  widow  of  a  departed 
mariner,  who  agreed  to  board  and  lodge  me. 

Her  little  house  was  neat  and  painted  white,  with  a 
garden  surrounding  it  filled  with  crotons,  limes,  and 
orange  trees,  and  in  front  a  paved  walk  with  comfortable 
benches,  from  which  was  a  general  view  of  the  settlement. 
This  is  the  town  of  Bottom,  and  which  I  thought  might 
better  have  been  named  the  Summit,  being  so  hard  to 
reach.  Though  surrounded  on  all  sides  by  steep  hills, 
with  breaks  in  the  brim  only  at  the  east  and  the  west, 
through  which  the  landing-places  are,  reached,  yet  the 
bottom  of  the  ancient  crater  is  quite  broad  and  compara- 
tively level.  That  the  volcano  once  vomited  out  many 
million  tons  of  rock  and  scattered  them  all  about  is  only 
too  evident,  for  the  people  here  have  had  to  pick  up  the 
rocks  and  stones  and  pile  them  in  heaps  before  they  could 
get  any  garden  spaces.  Each  little  garden  is  inclosed 
within  walls  so  high  that  the  one  street  and  the  bypaths 
wind  between  artificial  cliffs. 


274       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

Saba,  as  the  most  northern  of  the  true  volcanic  islands, 
is  the  home  of  some  birds  not  to  be  found  anywhere 
nearer  the  temperate  zone  than  here.  It  was  the  north- 
ernmost habitat,  as  I  ascertained,  of  the  beautiful  hum- 
ming-bird known  as  the  garnet  throat,  which  is  one  of  the 
largest  found  in  the  West  Indies,  and  has  plumage  like 
velvet,  shot  with  iridescent  and  metallic  hues  of  wine  or 
garnet. 

As  the  ascent  is  made  above  the  ravine  the  tree  ferns 
and  mountain  palms  become  very  numerous,  the  wild 
plantains,  with  golden  and  crimson  cups,  hang  athwart 
the  path  hew^n  by  the  cutlass,  and  a  wilderness  of  orchide- 
ous  plants  covers  the  trees.  There  is  no  trail  above  the 
"  provision  grounds  "  for  the  natives  of  Saba,  though  the 
men  make  voyages  round  the  world,  and  are  constantly 
at  sea,  have  no  love  for  mountain  climbing.  As  for 
the  women,  if  they  get  from  one  door  to  another,  and  once 
a  year  or  so  make  the  trip  of  forty  miles  to  St.  Kitts, 
they  think  they  have  done  wonders. 

But  the  view  from  the  peak  is  worth  voyaging  far  and 
climbing  high  to  see,  embracing,  as  it  does,  a  wide  sea- 
scape dotted  with  the  islands  of  St.  Barts,  St.  Martins, 
and  Anguilla  to  the  east ;  St.  Thomas,  Santa  Cruz,  St. 
John,  and  the  Virgin  group  to  the  north ;  St.  Eustatius, 
St.  Kitts,  Nevis,  and  Montserrat  to  the  south — all  historic 
islands,  and  every  one  a  gem. 

Being  a  volcano,  though  quiescent,  Saba  yields,  of 
course,  the  natural  concomitant  of  lava  and  scoriae — sul- 
phur, and  in  a  very  pure  state.  It  was  claimed  for  the 
vast  deposit,  which  was  then  being  exploited  toward  the 
heart  of  the  volcano,  that  it  was  the  only  mine  of  pure, 
cool  sulphur  in  this  hemisphere — the  only  one  outside  of 
Sicily,  in  fact.     I  have  seen  the  sulphur  of  Popocatapetl, 


THREE  LITTLE  DUTCH  ISLANDS       275 

Mexico,  in  situ,  and  it  was  to  gratify  my  desire  to  see  that 
of  Saba  that,  one  very  hot  day,  I  descended  the  eastern 
cHffs,  nine  hundred  feet  below  the  heights.  There  I 
found  the  black  miners  working  heartily,  in  a  tempera- 
ture too  hot  to  mention  in  polite  society,  at  a  level  about 
two  hundred  feet  above  the  sea.  The  great  cliffs  were 
seamed  with  veins  apparently  inexhaustible,  and  owing 
to  the  purity  of  the  crude  sulphur,  it  is  blasted  from  their 
faces  and  shot  down  a  wire  tram  to  the  holds  of  vessels 
anchored  near  the  shore.  Only  in  good  weather  is  this 
possible,  and  even  in  the  smoothest  sea  there  is  some 
danger,  for  the  "  trades  "  blow  straight  against  the  cliffs, 
and  there  is  no  shelter  nearer  than  the  west  shore  of 
'Statia,  fifteen  or  twenty  miles  away. 

I  once  found  myself  in  a  land  of  yesterday,  stranded 
on  an  island  which  the  mutations  of  trade  had  left  on  the 
verge  of  the  world,  so  far  as  modern  progress  was  con- 
cerned. It  is  an  island  of  the  Caribbees,  belonging  to  the 
Dutch,  and  lies  about  midway  between  Saba  and  Saint 
Kitts.  When  Christopher  Columbus  sailed  this  way,  in 
1493,  he  named  it  Saint  Eustatius. 

One  of  the  earliest  accounts  I  have  seen  calls  it  a  huge 
rock  rising  out  of  the  waves,  in  the  form  of  a  pyramid, 
about  fifteen  miles  in  circumference.  It  consists,  in  fact, 
chiefly  of  an  extinct  volcano  and  the  detritus  washed 
down  from  its  cliffs,  together  with  the  eruptive  matter 
from  the  crater.  There  is  no  real  peak  to  this  isolated 
mountain,  but  a  circular  crater  brim,  1950  feet  above  the 
sea,  and  the  sweep  of  its  pyramidal  sides  makes  it  one  of 
the  most  symmetrical  natural  objects  anywhere  to  be 
found  in  the  world. 

Neither  is  there  any  harbor  or  good  landing-place,  and 


276        OUR  WEST   INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

the  visitor  has  to  take  his  chances  of  getting  safely 
through  the  surf  that  beats  continually  upon  its  sandy 
shore.  Yet,  time  was  when  this  surf-pounded  shore  was 
strewn  with  the  products  of  every  clime,  and  merchandise 
of  incalculable  value  lay  unprotected  on  the  strand. 

About  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  during  the 
general  war  in  Europe,  the  Dutch,  taking  no  part  in 
belligerent  operations,  were  the  greatest  gainers,  as  they 
supplied  the  other  powers  with  naval  and  military  stores. 
And  at  the  beginning  of  the  last  quarter  of  that 
century,  when  that  little  dispute  occurred  between  Great 
Britain  and  her  American  colonies,  the  Dutch  again,  by 
sending  out  all  sorts  of  stores  and  munitions  to  their  West 
Indian  colony  of  St.  Eustatius,  were  of  very  material 
assistance  to  both  France  and  America.  John  Bull  sus- 
pected something  wrong  was  going  on,  but  could  not 
prove  it  until,  by  the  capture  of  an  American  packet,  his 
eyes  were  opened  to  the  true  inwardness  of  the  situation. 
Then,  with  a  promptness  that  fairly  took  the  Dutchmen's 
breath  away,  he  declared  all  treaties  between  his  court  and 
Holland  abrogated  and  sent  out  a  fleet  to  investigate.  In 
the  roadstead  of  Port  Orange,  'Statia's  apology  for  a  har- 
bor, a  large  fleet  of  East  Indiamen  was  congregated, 
laden  with  cargoes  of  immense  value,  and  the  beach  was 
piled  high  with  what  former  ships  had  landed  there  and 
for  which  there  was  no  storage  room. 

A  declaration  of  war  against  Holland  and  a  powerful 
fleet  under  Lord  Rodney  had  been  sent  out  simultane- 
ously, so  that  when  the  British  admiral  hove  in  sight, 
having  on  board  his  ships  a  large  land  force  under  Gen- 
eral Vaughan,  poor  'Statia  was  thrown  into  consternation. 

The  island  was  under  the  rule  of  brave  old  Governor 
DeGraafT,  a  Creole  of  Dutch  parentage,  whose  sympathies 


THREE  LITTLE  DUTCH  ISLANDS        277 

were  decidedly  with  the  struggHng  American  colonies, 
but  whose  forts  and  military  force  were  inadequate  to 
combat  this  immense  aggregation  and  armament  under. 
Rodney.  So  he  surrendered,  of  course,  and  the  island, 
with  its  vast  riches,  all  conveniently  stored  in  the  ships 
and  piled  up  on  shore,  fell  into  British  hands. 

With  an  instinctive  attraction  toward  the  place  that 
would  afford  the  greatest  loot,  the  British  had  pounced 
upon  this  island,  and  the  plunder  far  exceeded  their  most 
sanguine  expectations.  It  was  estimated  at  more  than 
$15,000,000;  but  while  Rodney  and  Vaughan  were  quar- 
reling over  its  distribution  they  let  slip  the  golden  oppor- 
tunity for  crushing  the  rebellious  Americans,  and  in  the 
end  the  capture  of  'Statia  cost  John  Bull  rather  more 
than  it  was  worth.  In  other  words,  if  Rodney  had  sailed 
to  the  relief  of  Lord  Cornwallis,  then  penned  up  at  York- 
town,  instead  of  tarrying  at  this  little  island,  he  might 
have  changed  the  history  of  our  Revolution.  He  tried  to 
make  amends  afterward  by  the  destruction  of  the  French 
fleet  under  De  Grasse;  but  that  was  more  in  the  nature 
of  revenge  than  a  compensation  for  the  loss  of  the 
colonies. 

And  again,  it  happened  that  as  the  riches  thus  acquired 
on  this  occasion  were  in  transit  to  England,  the  ships  con- 
taining them  were  intercepted  by  the  French  and  twenty- 
one  of  them  taken.  The  French,  also,  later  captured  the 
island  and  held  it  for  some  time ;  so  after  all  the  British 
made  little  out  of  their  breach  of  faith  with  the  Dutch. 

As  I  went  to  'Statia  seeking  rare  birds,  it  was  part  of 
my  province  to  explore  the  woods  and  mountain  districts, 
so  I  passed  one  night  on  the  crater  brim,  with  an  old  black 
man  as  guide  and  companion,  in  order  to  acquaint  myself 
with  the  phenomena  of  nature  there.     We  slept  on  the 


27S       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

ground,  and  I  had  a  blanket,  but  my  sable  friend  had 
nothing  between  him  and  Mother  Earth ;  yet  in  the  morn- 
ing he  was  awake  with  the  dawn,  and  led  me  into  the 
depths  of  the  crater.  It  is  like  a  huge  bowl,  the  sides 
precipitous,  but  fringed  with  trees  and  vines,  and  at  the 
bottom  are  immense  ceibas  and  gommiers,  with  trunks 
two  feet  in  diameter,  showing  that  many  centuries  have 
elapsed  since  the  last  eruption  there. 

Once  was  the  time  when  the  island  was  like  a  vast 
garden,  when  fields  of  waving  sugar  cane  covered  the 
plains,  tobacco,  indigo,  and  cotton  the  foothills,  and  coffee 
groves  the  mountain  slopes,  even  to  the  crater  brim.  Then 
there  were  20,000  people  living  here,  5000  white  Hol- 
landers and  15,000  blacks;  now  there  are  but  1500,  and 
the  white  man  is  a  rara  avis.  The  climate  is  healthy,  but 
good  water  is  scarce  (I  believe  there  is  not  a  stream  on 
the  island),  and  frequent  hurricanes  have  completed  the 
ruin  that  Lord  Rodney  began. 


-       SIGNATURE  OF  GOVERNOR  JOHANNES  DE  GRAAFF 

In  the  good  old  times  before  emancipation  an  acre  of 
soil  was  reckoned  to  produce  from  four  to  six  hogsheads 
of  sugar  of  1500  pounds  to  the  hogshead  ;  but  to-day  there 
is  hardly  that  much  raised  on  its  seven  square  miles  of 
territory.  Most  of  the  sugar  land  lies  over  on  the  wind- 
ward or  eastern  side  of  the  island,  for  the  leeward  or 
western  is  almost  too  hilly  for  that  sort  of  cultivation. 


THREE  LITTLE  DUTCH  ISLANDS        279 

There  are  several  elevations  of  respectable  height,  as  the 
White  Wall,  900  feet;  North  Hill,  960;  Signal  Hill,  750; 
Round  Hill,  500 ;  Old  Fort,  300,  and  the  town  of  Orange 
itself  is  well  set  up  above  the  beach,  the  tower  of  its' 
Dutch  Church  being  175  feet  above  sea  level.  The  old 
church,  like  the  mansions  of  those  who  built  it,  has  fallen 
into  ruin,  but  when  I  was  there  the  quaint  sounding- 
board  still  hung  above  the  pulpit,  and  the  pew  was  shown 
in  which  the  representative  of  their  High  Mightinesses, 
Governor  Johannes  De  Graaff,  used  to  sit. 

The  island  is  Dutch  still,  like  Curagao,  but  the  language 
of  commerce  and  common  use  is  English.  That  the 
official  language  is  Dutch,  the  passport,  or  permit  to 
shoot,  without  which  I  was  not  allowed  to  wander  around 
with  a  gun,  and  which  cost  me  two  guilders,  amply  tes- 
tifies. It  recites  that  De  Gczaghchher  van  St.  Eustatius 
hereby  permits  the  bearer  to  carry  abroad  ecu  diihhel- 
loop  achterlaad  scheitgeween  during  his  stay,  and  the 
police  force  of  the  island  (one  man  strong)  is  cautioned 
not  to  interfere  with  my  explorations,  "  which  are  in  the 
interests  of  science,"  etc. 

On  the  top  of  a  hill  was  the  caved-in  magazine  of  the 
old  fort,  three  hundred  feet  above  the  sleepy  town,  where 
a  few  rusty  cannon  of  the  last  century  poked  their  muz- 
zles out  of  a  tangle  of  cactus  and  acacia.  They  were 
obsolete  and  dismounted,  not  worth  taking  away  as  old 
iron,  even,  or  they  would  not  have  remained  in  the  fort 
so  long ;  but  what  an  interest  attaches  to  those  antiquated 
guns !  What  an  interest  to  an  American,  I  mean ;  for 
the  salute  fired  from  them  on  a  certain  day  in  1776  was 
the  ostensible  grievance  urged  by  England  when  she 
broke  the  treaty  with  Holland  that  precipitated  Rodney, 
like  a  thunderbolt,  upon  this  island. 


28o       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

I  must  not  forget  to  mention  that  what  John  Bull  made 
the  greatest  fuss  over  was  the  firing  of  a  salute  in  honor 
of  the  American  flag  by  order  of  the  Dutch  governor  of 
'Statia.  And,  moreover,  it  was  probably  the  first  recog- 
nition of  the  sort  received  by  our  flag  in  a  foreign  port. 

According  to  the  annals  of  the  time,  a  certain  privateer 
from  Baltimore,  named  the  "  Andrew  Doria,"  came  here 
for  supplies  in  November,  1776,  flying  a  flag  that  had 
never  been  seen  in  these  seas  before.  It  was  not  the  flag 
officially  adopted  by  Congress,  of  course,  for  that  was 
made  a  year  later;  but  it  probably  resembled  the  naval 
flag  of  the  Netherlands,  with  alternate  red,  white,  and  blue 
stripes.  However,  when  the  saucy  privateer  came  sailing 
into  Orange  harbor,  with  its  red,  white,  and  blue  flag  flut- 
tering, and  gave  the  fort  a  salute  from  its  guns,  sturdy 
Governor  De  Graaff  ordered  the  salute  returned,  and  the 
old  cannon  on  the  hill,  now  so  rusty  and  useless,  spoke 
out  loudly,  thirteen  times,  in  honor  of  the  thirteen  stripes 
and  colonies. 

But  thirteen  was  an  unlucky  number  for  the  governor 
and  the  island,  whatever  it  may  have  been  for  our 
colonies,  for  before  their  High  Mightinesses  could  comply 
with  the  British  demand  for  a  disavowal,  along  came 
Rodney  and  his  fleet  and  put  poor  'Statia  out  of  the  reck- 
oning altogether.  She  was  throttled,  then  and  there,  and 
our  colonies  obtained  no  further  aid  from  her.  Thus 
she  suffered,  in  a  sense,  on  our  account,  and  that  our 
freedom  might  be  achieved. 

And,  as  I  sat  amid  the  ruins  of  the  old  fort,  and  looked 
down  upon  the  sad  little  town  at  my  feet,  I  could  not  but 
feel  that  something  was  still  due  the  island,  in  the  nature 
of  amends  for  the  loss  of  that  fifteen  millions  and  depart- 
ed prosperity.  It  would  form  a  very  pretty  pendant  to  the 


THREE  LITTLE  DUTCH  ISLANDS        281 

necklace  of  insular  emeralds  that  Uncle  Sam  will  some 
day  throw  about  the  neck  of  Miss  Columbia ! 

If  the  American  eagle  ever  should  conclude  to  extend 
its  protection  to  the  islands  south  of  us  known  as  the 
West  Indies,  probably  among  the  first  to  scramble  'neath 
the  shelter  of  its  wing  would  be  those  at  present  owned 
by  the  Dutch.  Not  that  the  Hollanders  do  not  bestow 
upon  them  the  best  sort  of  a  paternal  government ;  but 
for  the  same  reasons  that  the  Danes  are  anxious  to  dis- 
pose of  their  own  West  Indian  possessions — economic 
considerations.  It  is  almost  pathetic  to  observe  the  tenac- 
ity with  which  these  once-powerful  governments  still 
cling  to  their  tropical  holdings  in  America.  But  it  is 
possibly  for  the  same  reason  that  the  hunter  held  on  to  the 
tail  of  the  wild  cat — because  nobody  would  help  him 
let  go ! 

The  Dutch  possessions  of  the  West  Indies  are  com- 
prised in  the  Islands  of  Curagao,  Buen  Ayre,  and  Aruba, 
off  the  South  American  coast;  Saba,  St.  Eustatius,  and 
part  of  St.  Martin,  in  the  northwest  Caribbean  Sea.  Their 
aggregate  area  is  only  403  square  miles,  their  population 
50,000,  and  the  annual  deficit  in  their  revenues  is  about 
60,000  guilders,  which  is  made  good  by  the  mother 
country. 

The  seat  of  government  is  at  Curagao,  where  the  chief 
magistrate  resides,  and  each  outlying  island  is  under  an 
officer  appointed  by  the  sovereign,  entitled  the  gezagheh- 
her.  Curagao  is  the  largest,  210  miles  in  area;  Buen 
Ayre  next,  95 ;  Aruba,  69;  the  moiety  of  San  Martin,  17; 
St.  Eustatius,  7,  and  little  Saba  last  with  only  5  square 
miles  to  its  credit,  and  about  1800  inhabitants. 

It  is  nearly  thirty-six  hours'  steaming  across  the  Carib- 


282        OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

bean  Sea  from  Puerto  Rico,  Saint  Thomas,  or  Saba,  to 
the  island  of  Curacao,  for  it  lies  almost  within  sight  of 
the  Venezuelan  coast  of  South  America.  It  is  only  forty 
miles  distant  from  that  coast,  on  a  clear  day  the  con- 
tinental mountains  being  discernible  from  the  island. 

Discovered  by  Vespucci,  in  1499,  Curagao  was  held  by 
the  Spaniards  until  1634,  when  the  Dutch  acquired  it;  but 
how,  no  man  seems  to  know.  They  probably  found  it 
without  an  owner  and  simply  annexed  it,  ever  since  hold- 
ing it  by  right  of  possession.  Curacao's  architecture 
shows  that  it  has  been  a  Dutch  holding  for  many  years^ 
for  it  is  that  of  Holland,  most  assuredly ;  and  so  are  the 
thrift  and  cleanliness  displayed  in  this  "  little  Dutch  Para- 
dise " ;  which  is  hot  enough,  by  the  way,  to  be  styled  an 
Inferno. 

Somebody,  I  think  it  was  Kingsley,  called  Saint 
Thomas  a  *'  little  Dutch  oven  of  a  place,"  and  the  name 
will  apply  equally  well  to  Curagao.  It  is  dry  and  parched 
and  in  spots  is  barren ;  but  yet  it  has  a  charm  all  its  own. 
As  a  violent  contrast  to  Saba  and  Saint  Eustatius,  it  is  a 
perfect  success ;  but  the  inhabitants  of  the  volcanic  islands 
seem  to  manifest  a  preference  for  their  own  mountainous 
demesnes,  notwithstanding  the  greater  activity  prevailing 
in  Curagao,  and  the  more  abundant  lucre.  It  is  difficult 
to  tear  a  mountaineer  from  his  country,  poor  though  it 
may  be,  and  few  of  the  Dutch  islanders  in  the  northern 
Caribbean  ever  come  to  Curagao  "  for  keeps."  Some  of 
the  governmental  officials  of  the  latter  island  are  obliged 
to  take  the  trip  to  Saba  and  'Statia  every  few  months, 
because  of  business ;  but  otherwise  there  is  scant  inter- 
change of  visits.  English  is  spoken  in  all  the  islands, 
though  the  official  language  is  Dutch.  In  addition,  there 
is   spoken   in   Cura(;ao  a  barbarous  mixture  of  Dutch, 


THREE  LITTLE  DUTCH  ISLANDS        283 

Spanish,  English,  Indian,  and  African,  known  as  Papia- 
mento,  which  is  a  perfect  pepper-pot,  or  hodge-podge,  of 
a  language,  and  peculiar  to  the  islanders  themselves. 

In  choosing  Curacao  for  their  seat  in  the  southern  ^ 
West  Indies,  the  Dutch  pitched  upon  an  island  reproduc- 
ing the  salient  natural  features  of  Holland  more  than 
any  other  in  the  Caribbean.  There  is  none  other  with 
just  such  a  landlocked  harbor  as  that  of  the  Curasao 
lagoon,  the  entrance  to  which  is  so  narrow  that  it  is 
spanned  by  a  bridge  of  boats,  which  is  drawn  aside  for 
steamers  to  enter.  Two  old  forts  guard  the  passage- 
way, one  on  each  side,  where  are  mounted  the  most 
obsolete  of  cannon,  and  paraded  the  funniest  of  little 
Dutch  soldiers,  who  hail  each  other  across  the  inlet  as 
they  feel  inclined. 

The  inlet  forms  a  capacious  harbor  half  a  mile  long, 
but  opens  beyond  into  a  great  lagoon  called  the  Schat- 
tegat,  where  the  ships  of  a  navy  might  float.  This  lagoon 
was  anciently  the  retreat  of  the  famous  pirates  of  the 
Spanish'  Main,  behind  a  high  hill  guarding  which,  capped 
by  an  old  fort,  they  used  to  hide  away  their  piratical 
craft.  From  the  island's  name  is  derived  that  of  the  sweet, 
insidious  liqueur  so  grateful  after  dinner — curagao;  but 
only  the  orange  peel  with  which  it  is  flavored  comes  from 
here,  none  of  it  being  manufactured  in  the  island. 

Decidedly  Dutch  is  Curasao,  as  anyone  will  say  who 
has  sailed  into  its  harbor-lagoon  between  Forts  Riff  and 
Amsterdam,  and  looked  upon  the  old  houses  ringing 
around  that  landlocked  body  of  water — houses  which 
might  have  been  transported  bodily  from  the  Zuyder  Zee, 
as  doubtless  the  tiles  that  cover  their  roofs  were,  long  ago. 
There  is  not  much  to  see  in  Curacao ;  but  somehow,  it 
gets  a  hold  on  one's  affections,  and  I  must  confess  to  a 


284        OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

liking  for  the  island,  barren  as  it  is,  and  dreary  as  its 
landscape  is  at  times,  from  lack  of  rain  and  more  than  a 
sufficiency  of  dust.  It  is  reached  by  the  ''  Red  D  "  line 
of  steamers,  which  perform  the  voyage  thither  from  New 
York,  with  a  stop  at  Puerto  Rico,  in  about  six  days. 

As  one  is  almost  within  touch  of  Venezuela,  when 
at  Curacao,  it  rarely  happens  that  the  traveler  tarries  long 
here,  preferring  to  go  on  to  Puerto  Cabello,  La  Guayra, 
and  Maracaibo  on  the  coast  of  Venezuela.  All  are  within 
a  few  hours'  steaming,  Maracaibo  being  the  farthest  and, 
perhaps,  the  best  worth  visiting,  what  with  its  historical 
scenes  of  buccaneer  days,  and  its  near  neighbors,  the 
famous  Lake  Dwellers,  discovered  by  Vespucci,  in  1499, 
and  to-day  living  in  huts  over  the  water,  exactly  as  he 
found  their  ancestors,  four  hundred  years  ago. 


XVIII 
SAINT  KITTS,  NEVIS,  AND  MONTSERRAT 

Saint  Kitts  and  Mount  Misery  —  Original  home  of  the  buccaneers 

—  Nevis,  Redondo,  and  Montserrat  —  Lofty  mountains  of  the 
Antilles  — .Sea-surrounded  volcanoes  —  Climbing  Mount  Mis- 
ery—  How  the  hospitable  planters  supplied  me  for  an  expe- 
dition—  Through  the  high  forests  of  the  volcano  —  What  was 
in  the  hamper  —  Water  from  the  wild  pines,  nature's  punch- 
bowls —  Deferential  darkies  in  attendance  —  On  the  peak 
and  what  was  found  there  —  Brimstone  Hill,  once  the  "  Gib- 
raltar of  Saint  Kitts  "  —  Sandy  Point  and  Basse  Terre  —  In 
the  crater  of  Mount  Misery  —  The  humming-birds'  bath  — 
Mammals  of  the  West  Indies  —  How  the  African  monkeys 
got  to  Saint  Kitts  —  What  old  Pere  Labat  has  to  say  about 
them  —  The  skull  in  the  soup  —  Sir  Thos.  Warner's  epitaph 

—  Relic  of  a  regicide  —  "  Bobby  "  Burns  came  near  becoming 
a  Kittefonian  —  The  sunken  city  near  Nevis  —  The  barrister 
of  Booby  Island  —  Fig-tree  Church,  where  Lord  Nelson  was 
married  to  the  Widow  Nisbet  —  The  marriage  register  — 
More  quaint  epitaphs  —  An  old-time  sanatorium  —  Birth- 
place of  Alexander  Hamilton  —  Legends  of  the  Amazons  — 
Madanino,  Island  of  Amazons  —  Identical  with  the  present 
Montserrat  —  How  Pat  Mulvaney  turned  into  a  "  naygur  "  — 
Home  of  the  lime-juicers  —  Origin  of  lime  culture  —  A  fine 
old  Quaker  family  —  A  new  bird  found  by  the  author. 

WHERE  every  island  is  a  perfect  gem,  a 
gigantic  emerald,  embraced  by  bluest  of 
waves  and  caressed  by  silvery  clouds,  it  is 
most  difficult  to  select  that  which  might  be  termed  the 
the  finest;  but  there  is  none  more  attractive  from  the 
sea  than  Saint  Kitts,  named  by  the  modest  Columbus 

285 


286        OUR   WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

after  himself,  Saint  Christopher.  He  discovered  it,  as 
indeed  all  these  islands  of  the  northern  Caribbees,  in  the 
year  1493. 

The  highest  peak  in  the  island,  about  4000  feet,  is 
Mount  Misery,  which  conceals  a  fine  crater  in  its  bosom 
— a  crater  that  has  sent  out  nothing  worse  than  steam  and 
sulphur  fumes  within  the  memory  of  man.  Brimstone 
Hill,  a  detached  peak  750  feet  in  height,  was  once  fortified 
by  the  British  and  called  their  "  West  Indian  Gibraltar," 
a  name  now  borne  by  Saint  Lucia,  to  the  south  of  Mar- 
tinique. Saint  Kitts  possesses  the  richest  soil  in  the  West 
Indies,  hardly  excepting  Cuba;  yet  its  planters  are  now 
in  the  doleful  dumps  because  we  will  not  take  them  under 
our  protecting  wing,  and  sturdy  black  men  are  going 
begging  at  twenty  cents  a  day. 

The  island  was  the  original  home  of  the  buccaneers. 
Off  its  leeward  coast  a  great  naval  battle  was  fought 
between  English  and  French.  Across  a  narrow  channel 
rises  the  symmetrical  peak  of  Nevis,  like  Mount  Misery, 
forest-clad,  and  with  a  fertile,  verdant  belt  around  it. 

Next  south  of  Nevis  lies  Montserrat,  smaller  yet,  and 
between  the  two  islands  the  great  rock  of  Redondo,  a  pin- 
nacle shooting  up  out  of  the  sea.  Montserrat  has  a  fine 
crater  or  "  soufriere,"  and  before  it  was  devastated  by  a 
hurricane  a  few  years  ago,  was  covered  with  groves  of 
limes.  Nevis  has  no  well-defined  crater,  but  has  numer- 
ous hot  and  mineral  springs. 

There  are  lofty  mountains  in  Cuba  and  Santo  Domingo 
which  have  scarce  been  climbed ;  in  Jamaica,  the  Bine 
Mountains,  above  7000  feet,  and  in  our  own  Puerto  Rico 
peaks  of  not  much  lesser  altitude.  Although  the  Island 
of  Haiti-Santo  Domingo  was  discovered  in  1492,  and  the 
first    American    cities    of    European    foundation    were 


ST.   KITTS,   NEVIS,   MONTSERRATT      287 

attempted  on  its  shores,  yet  the  mountainous  interior  con- 
tains summits  never  scaled,  and  valleys  which  have  been 
invaded  only  by  Indians  and  fugitive  blacks. 

Mountains  there  are,  scores  of  them,  above  5000  feet  in 
height,  awaiting  the  coming  of  the  intrepid  explorer ;  but 
the  true  volcanoes  lie  eastward  of  the  Greater  Antilles, 
in  the  chain  of  the  Caribbees.  These  islands  are  known 
as  the  Lesser  Antilles,  and  have  been  arbitrarily  divided 
into  the  "  Windward  "  and  "  Leeward  "  isles ;  but  as  a 
group  they  have  always  retained  the  name  they  derived 
from  the  cannibal  Caribs  by  whom  they  were  occupied 
when  discovered. 

Inclusive  of  the  Virgin  Islands,  just  east  of  Puerto 
Rico,  between  latitude  18  and  19  north  and  the  Island  of 
Trinidad,  10  degrees  from  the  equator  and  off  the  Orinoco 
delta,  these  Caribbees  describe  a  perfect  crescent.  The 
outer  isles  are  mainly  coralline,  low-lying  and  featureless, 
but  sheltered  within  this  great  barrier  chain  lie  the  true 
Caribbees,  an  archipelago  of  sea-surrounded  volcanoes, 
extending  over  six  degrees  of  latitude  and  ranging  from 
2000  to  6000  feet  in  height. 

I  never  knew  until  I  had  tried  to  gain  its  summit,  why 
the  great  central  mountain  of  Saint  Kitts  was  called 
"  Mount  Misery."  Then  I  understood ;  for,  although  the 
hospitable  planter  with  whom  I  was  temporarily  residing 
made  most  elaborate  preparations  for  me,  yet  the  discom- 
forts of  the  ascent  were  multitudinous.  The  same  old 
negro  who  had  guided  me  in  search  of  monkeys,  and 
who  was  the  watchman  of  the  estate,  was  detailed  to 
accompany  me  up  the  volcano.  He  called  me  at  four  in 
the  morning,  but  I  was  already  awake,  having  been  kept 
so  nearly  all  the  night  through  by  the  "  bete  rouge,"  or 
minute  red  bugs  that  infest  the  forests  and  cling  to  the 


288        OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

limbs  of  intrusive  strangers.  An  hour  later  we  were 
off,  and,  after  riding  about  five  miles,  as  far  as  the  pony 
could  carry  me,  I  dismounted,  and  the  beast  was  turned 
loose  in  the  mountain  pasture,  where  he  browsed  about 
until  our  return  in  the  afternoon. 

We  were  joined  here  by  two  men  who  claimed  to  be 
more  familiar  with  the  mountain  trail  than  old  Tucker — 
black  Jim  Bass  and  "  Yaller  Charlie  " — and  the  former 
marched  ahead  to  "  cutlass  out  "  a  path,  while  the  latter 
divided  with  my  old  man  the  transportation  of  the  pro- 
visions. The  commissariat,  by  the  way,  is  the  most 
important  feature  of  a  West  Indian  expedition,  and  no 
generous  host  like  my  dear  friend  Mercer  would  allow  a 
guest  to  set  forth  without  ample  stock  of  provand.  Hav- 
ing seen  to  it  that  his  cook  had  filled  a  huge  hamper  with 
cold  fowl,  cassava  bread,  crackers,  etc.,  with  an  imposing 
array  of  bottles  containing  various  liquors,  such  as  gin, 
native  rum,  and  ''  beer  "  or  Bass'  ale,  he  even  followed  me 
out  to  the  garden  gate  as  we  rode  away  and  shouted: 
"  Have  you  got  a  corkscrew  ?  "  I  had  a  corkscrew,  hav- 
ing been  in  the  islands  long  enough  to  know  the  impor- 
tance of  such  an  article,  and  he  went  back  contented. 

It  was  three  years  since  anybody  had  been  over  the 
trail  to  the  mountain-top,  and  Jim  Bass  had  hard  work 
cutlassing  out  a  path  through  the  ferns  and  the  razor 
grass,  which  latter  is  here  known  as  "  cutnannie,"  and 
inflicts  terrible  gashes  upon  unprotected  limbs.  It  took 
an  hour  to  rise  clear  of  the  wild  pasture  and  reach  a 
lateral  knife-edge  ridge  of  the  mountain  just  wide  enough 
for  the  trail. 

Soon  after  reaching  it  we  passed  through  a  natural 
opening  in  a  giant  fig  tree,  which  straddled  the  path, 
leaving  a  portal  higher  than  our  heads,  hung  with  vines 


ST.  KITTS,  NEVIS,  MONTSERRATT     289 

and  plastered  with  air  plants,  and  which  my  guides  called 
the  "  gate."  Beyond  the  "  gate  "  the  various  earthquakes 
with  which  the  island  has  often  been  visited  had  shaken 
the  earth  away  from  the  ridge  until  in  spots  only  a  nar- 
row blade  was  left,  with  deep  ravines  on  either  side,  filled 
with  dense  vegetation  of  gommiers  and  mountain  palms. 

The  upper  edge  of  the  forest  was  reached  an  hour 
before  noon,  and,  as  they  had  had  nothing  to  eat  or  drink 
since  their  morning  coffee,  six  hours  before,  my  men 
unanimously  declared  that  we  must  halt  and  breakfast. 
"  Mus'  feed  de  ole  man  in  ma  belly,"  said  Bass. 

"  Ma  belly  tech  ma  back ;  him  mus'  t'ink  ma  t'roat  cut," 
added  Tucker. 

"'  You  t'ink  yo'  mos'  dar,"  said  Yaller  Charlie  to  me, 
"  but  lemme  tell  yo',  we  on'y  begun  de  climb.  Dem 
climbin'  ferns  yander  de  wus  t'ings  in  de  wuld  fer  get 
t'ro'.  When  I  make  de  fus'  track  I  hab  on  pair  new 
briches,  and  when  I  come  back  dey  mash  to  cuss." 

The  peak  was  then  in  sight,  it  seemed  to  me,  and  I 
wished  to  push  on  and  breakfast  on  the  summit;  but  my 
men  were  obdurate.  The  huge  basket,  nearly  three  feet 
across,  and  which  Yaller  Charlie  had  carried  on  his  head 
over  places  where  I  had  to  cling  with  both  hands  to  ferns 
and  trees,  and  so  carefully  balanced  that  not  a  glass  was 
broken  or  a  bottle  disturbed,  was  let  down  to  the  ground 
and  our  breakfast  spread  out  on  wild  banana  leaves. 

Upon  examining  the  hamper  I  found  that  while  three 
kinds  of  liquor  had  been  provided,  there  was  not  a  sign  of 
water.  Neither  was  there  any  spring  or  stream  within  a 
mile  or  more.  But  while  I  was  debating  with  myself 
what  I  should  do  old  Tucker  took  a  cutlass,  and,  stepping 
to  the  nearest  tree,  severed  from  one  its  horizontal  limbs 
a  great  wild  pine  which  sat  astride  of  it,  and  from  the 


290       OUR  WEST  INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

cavities  within  the  leaves  poured  out  more  water  than 
was  actually  needed  for  diluting-  the  cane  juice  in  the  bot- 
tles. This  water  was  clear,  cool,  and  refreshing,  and  the 
wild  pines,  which  are  called  "  punch  bowls "  by  the 
natives,  are  never  without  a  supply. 

I  told  Tucker  to  take  one  of  the  bottles  of  rum  and 
divide  it  among  the  trio.  He  needed  no  second  invitation, 
and  receiving  the  bottle  from  me  deferentially,  retired 
with  it  behind  a  clump  of  palms,  where  it  was  soon  emp- 
tied, without  recourse  to  water  from  the  "  punch  bowls." 
Heartened  by  this  al  fresco  lunch,  and  blessing  my  good 
planter  for  his  providence,  we  soon  set  out  for  the  peak 
again,  this  time  stumbling  and  wallowing  through  masses 
of  climbing  ferns  and  slipping  over  dank  fields  of  mosses 
many  feet  in  depth. 

It  was  well  we  had  refreshed  ourselves  at  the  forest- 
edge,  for  there  would  have  been  no  opportunity  there- 
after, and  it  was  full  three  hours  before  the  peak  was 
reached.  The  last  half  hour  was  the  worst  climbing  I 
ever  did  in  my  life,  it  seemed  to  me,  for  I  had  to  hold 
on  with  both  hands  and  dig  my  toes  into  the  slippery 
mosses  on  nearly  perpendicular  rocks,  while  about  us 
the  fog  was  so  dense  that  we  could  not  see  five  feet  ahead. 
Through  it  all,  however,  Jim  Bass  hewed  out  the  old  trail 
so  truly  that,  though  obliterated,  he  disclosed  the  old 
blazes  every  now  and  then,  and  Yaller  Charlie  followed 
jauntily  in  his  wake,  balancing  the  hamper  on  his  head. 
He  would  not  listen  to  me  and  leave  it  behind,  saying 
that  it  was  no  trouble  at  all  to  tote  it,  and  we  might  need 
a  bite  when  we  reached  the  summit,  as  sure  enough  we 
did ;  not  only  a  bite,  but  a  nip,  to  keep  the  filmy  fog  out  of 
our  throats. 

''  By  de  holp  of  de  Lawd  we  reach  dat  top,"  said  Bass, 


ST.   KITTS,   NEVIS,   MONTSERRATT      291 

fervently  and  encouragingly ;  and  reach  it  we  finally  did, 
casting  ourselves  down,  quite  exhausted,  on  the  ridge 
above  the  crater. 

**  When  Mr.  Norton  reach  heah,"  said  Tucker,  "  he 
done  bus'  right  into  teahs,  and  den  he  pray,  and  sing 
*  God  Save  de  Queen.'  " 

I  could  understand  Mr.  Norton's  enthusiasm,  though 
for  the  life  of  me  I  could  not  see  what  the  queen  had  to 
do  with  it.  Fancy  Queen  Victoria,  or  King  Edward, 
either,  as  to  that  matter,  waddling  to  the  peak  of  Mount 
Misery !  Neither  of  them  ever  saw  it ;  though  the 
Prince's  sons,  George,  and  his  late  lamented  brother,  once 
visited  the  islands  as  midshipmen,  and  had  everywhere  a 
royal  reception. 

The  dense  fog  sweeping  in  from  the  Atlantic  hid  from 
sight  all  the  windward  side  of  the  island,  from  which  we 
had  ascended,  but  to  the  leeward  lay  the  encircling  forest 
just  about  the  cone,  beyond  which  were  the  sugar  planta- 
tions, divided  into  squares  of  light  green  where  the  cane 
was  growing,  and  brown  where  it  had  been  cut  or  the 
ground  had  been  freshly  broken.  No  bit  of  paradise 
could  appear  more  beautiful;  and  as  to  its  fertility,  I 
knew  that  I  was  looking  upon  one  of  the  richest  tracts 
of  cane  land  in  the  world,  where  the  volcanic  soil  is  so 
deep  as  to  be  inexhaustible. 

Beyond  the  inclosing  plantations,  with  their  brown  and 
verdant  checkers  of  cane  and  their  tiny  windmills  with 
slow-waving  arms,  lay  the  all-encircling  sea,  blue  as  the 
clearest  sky  and  flecked  with  vessels  white  and  beautiful. 
I  could  see  Saba  and  'Statia,  Antigua  Nevis,  Montserrat, 
and  a  score  of  lesser  islets,  lying  like  cloudbanks  on  the 
wave,  when  the  fog  lifted  and  revealed  them,  and  each 
one  was  a  vision  of  beauty. 


592       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

The  driving  mist  that  so  rapidly  scurried  over  the  verge 
of  the  volcano  was  only  now  and  then  dispelled  by  the 
Sim,  affording  but  transient  glimpses  of  the  gloomy  chasm 
that  lay  beneath  us.  The  walls  on  this  side  were  too  steep 
to  descend,  being  almost  perpendicular ;  but  I  vowed  that 
I  would  reach  the  crater,  even  if  I  took  another  trip  as 
hard  as  this  to  accomplish  it.  A  week  later  I  was  on  the 
leeward  coast  of  the  island,  and  at  six  in  the  morning 
skirting  the  base  of  world-renowned  Brimstone  Hill, 
crowned  by  its  fortress  known  as  the  "  Gibraltar  of  St. 
Kitts." 

From  the  coast  settlement  of  Sandy  Point  it  is  a  hot 
seven  miles  to  the  borders  of  '*  Sir  Gillis'  Estate,"  in  the 
pastures  above  which  I  left  my  horse  and  found  a  guide. 

Sandy  Point,  which  lies  at  the  north  end  of  the  island, 
ten  miles  from  Basse  Terre,  obtains  its  water  supply  from 
springs  in  the  hills  at  this  place,  and  thence  there  is  a 
trail  through  the  dense  forest,  up  steep  ridges,  finally 
turning  the  crest  and  descending  the  crater  wall  at  an 
uncomfortable  pitch,  but  accompanied  all  the  way  by 
clumps  of  tree  ferns,  wild  plantains,  and  mountain  palms. 
The  descent  is  steeper  than  that  into  the  "  bowl  "  of 
'Statia,  and,  like  that,  it  is  lined  with  tropical  vegetation, 
even  large  trees  finding  a  home  here,  and  the  distance 
from  the  brim  is  about  700  feet. 

In  ordinary  seasons  there  is  a  small  lake  here  which 
varies  in  depth,  sometimes  drying  up  entirely,  and  its 
Avater,  when  there  is  any,  is  blackish-green.  Above  the 
crater  bed  rises  Mount  Misery,  the  highest  peak  of  the 
surrounding  wall,  steep,  precipitous,  and  on  the  opposite 
side  is  a  large  body  of  palms.  Amateur  geologists  say 
that  the  adjacent  Brimstone  Hill  looks  as  if  it  had  been 
cast  out  of  this  crater  at  some  far-distant  epoch,  and  that 


ST.  KITTS,  NEVIS,  MONTSERRATT      293 

if  it  could  be  turned  upside  down  it  would  exactly 
fill  it. 

Under  the  clififs  of  the  east  side  is  the  "  Sulphur,"  a 
steaming  pool,  where  the  surrounding  rocks  are  stained 
in  various  colors — red,  yellow,  brown — and  the  trees 
near  by  are  blanched  quite  snow  white,  their  leaves 
scorched  and  shriveled.  Throughout  the  bed  are  numer- 
ous black  fumaroles  leading  far  into  the  bowels  of  the 
earth,  from  which  sulphur  fumes  are  belched,  as  in 
Dominica  and  Guadeloupe,"  while  a  stream  of  acidulous 
water  runs  from  the  great  "  Sulphur  "  into  the  lake. 

At  the  spring  in  the  forest,  which  I  reached  at  mid- 
afternoon  on  the  return  journey,  I  found  "  Mannie,  the 
Portugee,"  awaiting  me  with  a  basket  full  of  solid  and 
liquid  nourishment,  sent  by  the  proprietor  of  the  Wing- 
field  estate,  nearly  nine  miles  distant.  He  had  trudged 
all  the  way  in  the  tropic  sun,  and  the  beer  was  warm ;  but 
as  I  had  eaten  little  and  drunk  nothing  since  morning, 
and  the  sulphur  water  in  the  crater  was  not  exactly  palat- 
able, I  did  not  mind  a  little  thing  like  that.  The  water 
of  the  crystal  spring  was  delicious,  and  far  preferable  to 
any  ''  bottled  goods,"  while  the  cold  chicken  and  guinea 
bird  were  as  tender  as  the  proverbial  "  Billy's  mother  " — 
who,  I  believe,  was  the  widow  of  a  sailor. 

While  refreshing  myself  in  this  delightful  spot  I  was 
entertained  by  the  antics  of  a  gilt-crested  hummer,  which 
not  only  flew  under  the  sparkling  drops  as  they  fell  from 
the  rocks,  but  also  alighted  and  clung  to  the  saturated 
moss,  allowing  the  water  to  run  over  his  glistening  back. 
This  seemed  to  be,  in  fact,  the  chosen  bathing  place  of 
the  humming-birds,  for  while  I  was  there  more  than  a 
dozen  came  and  dashed  into  the  water.  The  black  rock 
was  clothed  in  soft  mosses  and  ferns,  the  deep  recess  in 


294        OUR  WEST  INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

which  the  water  dripped  was  overhung  with  begonias 
having  sea-shell  tints,  and  above  my  head  palms  and 
trumpet  trees  interposed  their  leaves  between  me  and 
the  sun. 

Down  by  the  sea,  near  the  base  of  Brimstone  Hill,  the 
bottom  of  the  bay  is  said  to  be  unbearably  hot,  and  the 
sea-water  charged  with  sulphurous  gases,  so  it  would 
seem  that  the  name  is  not  inapplicable  to  this  spot  so 
famous  in  West  Indian  history. 

As  I  was  inspecting  the  place  a  crowd  collected,  and 
one  old  darky  explained  to  the  rest  that  I  had  ''  come  to 
take  de  dimensions  ob  Sandy  Point  side,"  meaning  that 
I  intended  to  write  about  it;  and  he  was  not  far  wrong, 
after  all. 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that,  while  there  is  abundant  cover 
for  large  game  in  the  West  Indies,  few  big  animals  are 
found  in  a  ferous  state.  Almost  all  of  the  little  found 
there  has  sprung  from  game  animals  imported  many 
years  ago.  When  the  first  Spaniards  arrived  at  Cuba 
they  discovered  the  natives  in  possession  of  a  small 
quadruped  called  the  "  dumb  dog,"  which  not  only  was 
held  in  high  esteem  for  the  table,  but  was  cherished  as  a 
pet.  Its  chief  peculiarity  was  its  inability  to  bark  or 
make  any  sound  above  a  grunt  or  moan. 

There  are,  strictly  speaking,  no  large  arboreal  animals, 
if  we  may  except  the  few  species  of  squirrels,  'possums, 
and  'coons,  and  the  most  noteworthy  hiatus  in  the  insular 
fauna  is  the  almost  entire  absence  of  monkeys  throughout 
the  West  Indies. 

Until  within  less  than  a  score  of  years  the  presence  of 
monkeys  in  these  two  islands  and  their  entire  absence  in 
other  and  larger,  was  a  puzzle  to  the  naturalists.  It  is 
believed  that  no  skins,  even,  of  these  monkeys  were  to  be 


ST.   KITTS,   NEVIS,   MONTSERRATT      295 

found  in  the  United  States,  until  the  writer  succeeded  in 
obtaining  some,  in  the  year  1880,  and  sending  them  to  the 
Smithsonian  Institution.  Then  it  was  ascertained  that 
the  vSt.  Kitts  species  was  the  African  green  monkey, 
known  to  scientists  at  the  Cercopithccus  callitricus,  and 
comparatively  common.  But  for  some  time  after  this 
announcement  the  naturalists  cudgeled  their  brains  to  find 
out  how  this  species  came  to  be  so  plentiful  in  an  island 
thousands  of  miles  away  from  its  accustomed  habitat. 

This  was  a  poser,  until  I  enlightened  them  by  giving 
them  the  results  of  my  investigations.  In  an  old  history 
of  travels  by  Pere  Labat,  a  Frenchman,  who  voyaged 
through  the  x\ntilles  in  the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  reference  is  made  to  some  African  monkeys 
that  escaped  from  captivity,  and,  having  gained  the  for- 
ests, there  propagated  with  great  rapidity,  until  they  had 
become  a  nuisance  to  the  planters. 

Then  the  wise  men  breathed  more  freely,  for  the  prob- 
lem was  solved  at  last ;  the  origin  of  an  African  monkey 
in  American  islands  was  determined.  The  difference 
between  the  monkeys  of  the  old  and  the  new  world  are 
many,  the  most  noticeable  being  shown  in  the  shape  and 
uses  of  their  tails.  For,  whereas  the  old  world  species  is 
stiff-tailed  and  has  little  use  for  that  appendage  which 
has  been  such  a  stumbling  block  to  the  promulgators  of 
the  evolution  theory,  the  American  species  has  a  pre- 
hensile tail  and  thus  has  many  advantages  over  its 
cousins  across  the  water. 

Speaking  of  the  uses  to  which  the  early  planters  of  St. 
Kitts  put  the  ravagers  of  their  cane  fields,  the  monkeys, 
who  used  to  descend  in  troops  and  eat  all  before  them, 
the  old  historian  narrates  how  the  planters  aforesaid 
applied  the  old  aphorism  and  made  "  like  cure  like." 


296       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

He  says :  "  Being  one  day  invited  to  dine  with  one  of 
the  planters,  I  was  horrified,  when  the  soup  was  brought 
to  the  table,  to  see  what  looked  like  an  infant's  skull 
bobbing  about  in  the  tureen.  But  I  was  assured  that  it 
was  not  that  at  all,  but  merely  the  skull  of  a  monkey, 
which  had  been  deprived  of  skin  and  eyes  and  carefully 
cleaned." 

He  goes  on  to  say  that  he  finally  overcame  his  repug- 
nance and  ate  with  gusto  of  the  savory  dish  before  him, 
which  could  not  have  been  surpassed.  Indeed,  he  took 
care  that  it  should  form  a  feature  of  his  repasts  while  in 
the  island,  for  the  worthy  father  was  a  great  gourmand. 
The  moral  of  which  is,  or  should  be :  When  monkey 
soup  is  brought  before  you,  shut  your  eyes  and  ask  no 
questions. 

One  would  hardly  expect  to  find  in  two  small  islands 
like  St.  Kitts  and  Nevis,  which  together  cover  little  more 
than  one  hundred  square  miles,  names  that  have  become 
familiar  to  all  readers  of  American  and  English  history. 
As  St.  Kitts  was  the  mother  of  the  English  colonies  in 
this  part  of  the  West  Indies,  and  her  immensely  fertile 
soil  was  easy  of  cultivation,  many  sons  of  distinguished 
families  came  out  here  to  seek  their  fortunes. 

The  founder  of  the  colony  was  a  Sir  Knight,  as  is 
shown  by  his  quaint  epitaph,  which  is  still  to  be  seen  in 
an  ancient  cemetery  in  the  center  of  the  island : 

"An  Epitaph  upon  the  most  honourable  Noble  and 
much  Lamented  Gent  Sir  Thos.  Warner,  Kt.,  Lieutenant 
General  of  Ye  Caribbee  Islands  and  Gov'r  of  ye  Island 
of  St.  Christ,  Who  departed  this  Life  the  loth  of  March, 
1648." 

The  colony  was  always  loyal  to  the  English  crown,  in 


ST.   KITTS,   NEVIS,   MONTSERRATT      297 

consequence  of  so  many  ''  gentlemen "  having  been 
employed  in  its  foundation;  but  one  of  the  judges  who 
signed  the  death-warrant  of  Charles  I.  somehow  found 
refuge  there.  In  the  possession  of  a  family  of  planters 
is  a  silver  tankard,  inscribed  with  the  initials  of  this 
"  regicide,"  "  J.  N.  H." — his  name  was  Hutchingson — • 
and  the  date,  1662. 

Another  family  holds  as  a  choice  relic  a  letter  from 
Robert  Burns,  written  about  a  hundred  years  ago,  in 
which  the  Scottish  bard  gravely  considers  the  possibilities 
of  bettering  his  condition  by  removing  to  St.  Kitts.  It  is 
a  credit  to  his  sense  and  his  loyalty  that  he  vshould  have 
remained  in  comparatively  sterile  Scotland,  for  there  is 
no  denying  the  fact  that  "  Bobby  "  was  inclined  to  a  land 
that  was  generous  and  where  good  liquors  were  to  be  had. 

The  literary  remains  of  these  islands  are  few  and  far 
between,  and  they  shine  rather  with  a  reflected  radiance 
than  with  an  original  luster  of  their  own.  Thi$  may  par- 
ticularly be  said  of  the  Island  of  Nevis,  separated  from  its 
mate  by  a  sea  channel  less  than  three  miles  wide.  The 
islands  were  at  one  time  contiguous,  it  is  thought,  and  a 
submarine  passage  exists  from  one  to  the  other.  This  is 
founded  upon  the  statement  of  the  monkey  hunters,  who 
declared  that  they  have  chased  troops  of  monkeys  to  a 
cavernous  region  on  either  side,  where  they  disappeared 
as  if  swallowed  up  by  the  sea.  It  is  a  well-known  fact 
that  monkeys  are  never  numerous  on  both  islands  at  the 
same  time,  for,  while  they  are  ravaging  the  cacao  groves 
and  cane  fields  of  one  island  those  of  the  other  are  usually 
exempt.  On  the  Nevis  side  of  the  channel,  under  the 
grassy  slopes  of  Hurricane  Hill,  the  water  covers  the  site 
of  Jamestown,  the  sunken  city.  It  was  submerged  dur- 
ing a  hurricane,  like  Port  Royal  in  Jamaica,  and  for  more 


298        OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

than  a  century  the  waves  have  covered  the  roofs  of  its 
houses.  In  midchannel  rises  a  huge  rock  inhabited  only 
by  sea  birds  and  known  as  Booby  Island. 

An  arrogant  young  barrister  being  asked  by  a  certain 
judge  where  he  practiced,  airily  replied :  '*  Oh,  between 
St.  Kitts  and  Nevis."  **  Ah,"  said  the  judge,  *'  on  Booby 
Island,  I  presume !  " 

Two  events  have  happened  in  Nevis  which  will  cause 
the  island  to  be  kept  in  remembrance  for  many  years  to 
come.  Here  was  bom  the  great  American  statesman, 
Alexander  Hamilton ;  and  here  Britain's  peerless  seadog, 
Lord  Nelson,  fell  victim  to  a  widow's  wiles  and  was 
married. 

In  the  year  1782  Horatio  Nelson,  then  but  twenty-four 
years  old,  was  appointed  to  the  command  of  one  of  his 
majesty's  ships  and  sent  to  New  York.  The  commander- 
in-chief,  Admiral  Digby,  congratulated  him  on  this 
appointment  to  a  station  where  large  sums  of  prize  money 
were  to  be  obtained,  when  the  young  captain  replied: 
^'  Yes,  sir ;  but  I  prefer  the  West  Indies  as  the  station  of 
honor."  He  was,  though  unwittingly,  taken  at  his  word, 
and  sent  to  the  West  Indies,  where  he  became  acquainted 
with  the  best  people  of  those  hospitable  islands. 

Two  years  later,  having  made  several  voyages,  and 
acquired  the  confidence  of  his  sovereign,  Nelson  was 
again  appointed  to  the  West  Indies,  as  a  commander  of 
the  twenty-eight-gun  frigate  the  "  Boreas,"  sailing  from 
Spithead  the  19th  of  May,  1784.  He  carried  with  him 
the  rear  admiral  of  the  fleet.  Sir  Richard  Hughes,  and 
his  family,  and,  after  their  transfer,  assumed  charge  of 
the  squadron  assembled  at  Nevis.  This  island  was  then 
a  prosperous  sugar-producing  colony  of  Great  Britain. 

It  was  during  this  West  Indian  voyage  that  he  met  and 


ST.   KITTS,   NEVIS,   MONTSERRATT      299 

won  the  fair  Widow  Nisbet,  relict  of  a  resident  physician 
who  had  practiced  in  Nevis.  They  were  married,  as  the 
register  of  Figtree  Church  affirms,  on  the  nth  of  March, 
1787.  The  marriage  register  is  still  in  evidence,  though 
the  leaves  of  the  old  book  are  tattered  and  worn,  and 
can  be  seen  by  visitors  to  the  Island  of  Nevis.  The  entry 
is  as  follows : 

That  is  all.  The  unknown  recorder  of  this  affair  could 
not  peer  into  the  future  and  perceive  that  he  was  then  in 
the  presence  of  one  of  England's  greatest  captains,  for 
the  young  man  had  not  then  won  his  successive  titles  of 
Baron  Nelson  of  the  Nile,  Duke  of  Bronte,  etc.  He  was 
plain  Horatio  Nelson,  Esq. ;  but  doubtless  considered  a 
good  catch  by  a  West  Indian  widow  of  little  means. 

In  the  cemetery  attached  to  the  little  Figtree  Church 
are  some  very  interesting  epitaphs.  One  of  the  early 
ones  is  that  of  an  English  gentleman  who  died  while  on  a 
visit  to  the  island,  as  set  forth : 

"  Here  lyeth  ye  body  of  Mr.  Arthur  Ploner,  of  ye  city  of  Bristol, 
who  departed  this  life  ye  15th  of  May,  1702,  aged  38  years. 
"  Tho'  in  ye  grave  ye  widowed  Carcasse  lyes, 
His  Soul  is  living  still ;  yt  never  Dyes. 


300       OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

This  too  shall  one  day  mount  upon  ye  Wing, 
As  from  dead  Winter  does  ye  vig'rous  Spring; 
So  both,  we  hope,  will  meet  at  last  in  Joy, 
And  live  in  Pleasures  Yt  have  no  alloy." 

The  next  is  in  the  nature  of  an  advertisement,  as 
follows : 

"  Here  lies  the  body  of  John  Huggins,  Esq.,  who  died  6th  Dec, 
1824,  aged  58.  Not  many  years  before  his  death  he  became  pro- 
prietor of  the  neighboring  hot  springs,  over  which,  out  of  good 
will  towards  his  fellow  creatures,  and  not  for  any  advantage  of 
his  own,  he  erected  convenient  baths,  and  at  a  short  distance  a 
large  and  expensive  stone  edifice,  for  the  accommodation  of  in- 
valids.   This  stone  was  put  up  by  his  widow." 

The  sanitarium  so  ostentatiously  alluded  to  in  the 
epitaph  is  in  existence  yet,  but  merely  as  a  mass  of  ruins. 
The  good  intention  of  its  builder  miscarried,  for  though 
the  hot  and  mineral  waters,  which  here  gush  forth  from 
natural  springs,  are  renowned  for  their  curative  prop- 
erties, yet  they  are  not  availed  of  as  they  should  be.  The 
house  itself  is  occupied  by  some  wretched  families  of 
black  and  colored  people,  who  live  here  in  a  state  of 
squalor  and  misery.  From  the  ruined  parapet  of  the 
castellated  structure  lies  outspread  a  beautiful  view  of 
Nevis :  the  mountains  sweeping  up  from  the  sloping  lower 
land,  where  the  town  lies  hidden  in  cocoa  palms  and  with 
St.  Kitts,  blue  and  misty,  beyond — a  fair  picture,  in  spite 
of  the  desolation. 

Immediately  below  are  the  baths,  in  the  open  air, 
beneath  date  palms  and  mango  trees,  with  a  tepid  stream 
running  from  them  to  the  sea.  Here  the  sound  of  blows 
attracts  attention,  and  soon  the  visitor  finds  that  he  has 
invaded  the  sacred  precincts  of  the  washerwomen. 

As  the  air  is  hot  and  the  watQr  is  warm  the  women  see 


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ST.  KITTS,  NEVIS,  MONTSERRATT     301 

no  need  for  attire  of  any  sort,  and  most  of  them  are  in  a 
state  of  nudity.  There  are  old  black  crones  and  young 
brown  matrons,  slips  of  maids  and  skinny  pickaninnies 
hopping  about  and  wading  in  the  water  like  so  many  black 
birds  in  the  Garden  of  Eden. 

On  a  hillside  slope  above  the  only  town  in  Nevis  are  to 
be  seen  the  ruins  of  a  once  magnificent  "great  house," 
which  once  pertained  to  an  estate  of  vast  extent.  Around 
it  spreads  a  terraced  garden  filled  with  the  remains  of 
stately  tropic  trees  and  ornamental  shrubbery.  A  mag- 
nificent grove  of  mango  trees,  their  dense  crowns 
spangled  with  golden  fruit,  surrounds  the  ruined  house 
and  garden,  isolating  them  completely.  Some  of  the 
mangos  climb  the  hill  and  enter  the  forest  which  runs 
down  from  the  mountain  and  thus  form  a  connecting  link 
between  the  different  kinds  of  vegetation. 

The  upper  cone  of  the  mountain  is  completely  encircled 
by  a  forest  of  great  trees,  composed  of  giant  gums,  silk- 
cottons,  mountain  palms,  and  matted  together  by  miles  of 
vines  and  bush  ropes.  This  is  the  natural  home  of  the 
monkeys,  from  which  they  go  out  on  foraging  excursions 
to  the  deserted  plantations.  The  nearest  living  neigh- 
bors, in  fact,  to  the  house  and  plantation  we  have 
described,  are  the  wild  monkeys  of  the  northern  forest; 
and  yet  that  ruined  house,  so  desolate  and  fallen  to  de- 
cay, is  pointed  out  as  the  birthplace  of  Alexander  Ham- 
ilton. 

The  father  of  Alexander  Hamilton  was  a  Scotch 
merchant,  who  had  married  a  young  French  woman,  and 
their  son  was  born  in  Nevis,  the  nth  of  January,  1757. 
Here  the  boy  lived  until  eleven  years  old,  when  he  was 
sent  to  Santa  Cruz,  whence  he  soon  made  his  way  to  the 
United  States,  never  to  return  to  his  native  island. 


302        OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

There  is  probably  no  legend  of  the  Greek  mythology 
that  dies  harder  than  that  of  the  Amazonas  or  Amazons, 
fierce  fighting  women,  who  have  held  man  at  bay  for  so 
many  centuries.  They  were  located  in  various  parts  of 
Asia,  and  finally  in  Africa,  but  long  after  the  crystalliza- 
tion of  the  myth  into  the  Grecian  stories  of  gods,  heroes, 
and  heroines,  the  tale  survived,  or  rather  reappeared,  in 
the  new  world. 

Columbus,  as  we  know,  when  seeking  a  passage  across 
to  Asia,  was  all  the  time  dwelling  upon  old-world  tradi- 
tions, and  had  in  mind  only  what  had  been  written  by 
voyagers  and  travelers  in  the  east.  In  the  Island  of  Cuba 
he  sought  the  court  of  the  Grand  Khan,  in  Haiti  the 
Cipango  of  Marco  Polo,  and  throughout  his  first  voyage 
to  America  looked  for  the  verification  of  Oriental  fables 
and  expected  at  every  turn  to  come  across  their  fabulous 
monsters. 

Near  the  termination  of  that  voyage,  when  in  the  Bay 
of  Samana,  on  the  north  coast  of  Santo  Domingo,  he 
heard  of  something  that  set  his  blood  tingling  and  caused 
him  to  shape  his  course  southward  instead  of  toward 
vSpain  and  the  home  port.  Some  of  the  Indians  captured 
there  told  him  of  an  island  of  the  Caribbees  that  was 
inhabited  solely  by  women,  and,  taking  them  aboard  as 
pilots,  he  steered  in  the  direction  they  indicated,  resolved 
to  add  the  discovery  and  conquest  of  the  Amazons  to  the 
fruits  of  that  memorable  voyage. 

The  prevailing  trade  winds,  however,  were  baffling,  his 
provisions  and  water  ran  short,  and  instead  he  turned 
about  and  bore  up  for  the  Azores  and  Spain,  taking  along 
with  him  the  unfortunate  Indians. 

But  he  did  not  lose  sight  of  the  story,  and  when,  nearly 
a  year  later,  he  set  sail  from  Cadiz  with  his  fleet  of  seven- 


ST.   KITTS,   NEVIS,   MONTSERRATT      30^^ 

teen  ships  and  caravels  he  was  so  far  influenced  by  the 
reports  of  Caribs  and  Amazons  to  be  found  nearer  the 
equator  than  the  island  he  had  discovered  on  the  first 
voyage,  that  he  vi^ent  several  degrees  farther  to  the 
southward,  and  discovered  the  island  of  Montserrat. 

When  a  successful  settlement  was  started  by  the 
English  in  the  near  Island  of  Nevis,  an  overflow  portion 
went  to  Montserrat,  allured  by  the  rich  lands  suitable  for 
sugar  cultivation.  It  was  the  discontented  .part  that  left 
Nevis  for  Montserrat,  and  composed  mainly  of  Irish 
Catholics.  In  proof  of  this,  although  the  event  occurred 
as  far  back  as  1632,  may  be  pointed  out  the  fact  that 
many  of  the  present  inhabitants,  even  the  negroes,  speak 
English  with  a  brogue,  having  an  Hibernian  accent  per- 
fectly delicious. 

It  is  told  of  a  modern  exile  from  Erin,  who  had  con- 
cluded to  seek  a  refuge  in  Montserrat,  that  as  the  ship 
he  was  on  cast  anchor  in  the  harbor  of  Plymouth,  the  only 
town  of  the  island,  he  leaned  over  the  rail  and  entered 
into  conversation  with  a  black  bumboatman,  who  came 
out  to  sell  his  provisions. 

"  Say,  Cuffee,  phwat's  the  chance  for  a  lad  ashore  ?  " 

"  Good,  yer  honor,  if  ye'r  not  afraid  of  wurruk.  But 
me  name's  not  CuflFee,  an',  plase  ye,  it's  Pat  Mulvaney." 

"  Mulvanev  ?    And  do  yez  mean  to  say  ye'r  Oirish  ?  " 

"  Oi  do."  ' 

"  The  saints  dayfind  us.  An'  how  long  have  yez  been 
out  here  ?  " 

**  A  matter  uv  tin  year  or  so." 

"  Tin  year !  An'  yez  black  as  me  hat !  May  the  divil 
fly  away  wid  me  if  I  iver  set  fut  on  this  ould  oisland. 
Save  me  sowl,  I  tuk  yez  fer  a  naygur !  " 

Montserrat  has  been  in  continuous  British  possession 


304       OUR  WEST  INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

ever  since  1784,  and  until  about  forty  years  ago  its  people 
were  almost  exclusively  devoted  to  the  raising  of  sugar 
cane.  About  that  time  some  merchants  having  business 
v^ith  the  island  conceived  the  idea  of  planting  a  few 
unprofitable  estates  that  had  come  into  their  possession 
with  lime  trees. 

Over  in  the  adjacent  island  of  Dominica  a  resident 
physician  there,  Dr.  Imray,  had  made  the  experiment 
with  great  promise  of  success ;  and  the  physical  character- 
istics of  both  islands  are  the  same.  Each  one  consists 
mainly  of  a  mass  of  mountains  thrown  up  from  the  sea, 
with  deep  gorges  running  up  into  the  central  range  and  a 
belt  of  exceedingly  fertile  soil  around  the  coast. 

Owing  to  the  restricted  area  of  soil  suitable  for  sugar 
plantations  they  had  long  since  ceased  to  pay,  one  after 
another  becoming  saddled  with  a  mortgage  that  the 
owner  could  not  raise,  and  falling  into  the  hands  of  Lon- 
don merchants  who  had  advanced  money  for  their 
working. 

The  taking  up  of  the  lime  industry  saved  the  little 
island  from  actual  distress,  and  to-day  a  single  firm  owns 
more  than  600  acres,  and  exports  annually  100,000  gal- 
lons of  concentrated  lime  juice. 

When  I  was  in  Montserrat  a  few  years  ago  the  leading 
planters  were  the  Sturges,  English  merchants  of  Quaker 
stock,  celebrated  for  their  philanthropy.  One  of  the  fam- 
ily, Joseph  Sturge,  was  a  friend  and  correspondent  for 
many  years  of  the  poet  Whittier. 

Beautiful  Montserrat  is  associated  in  my  mind  with  the 
discovery  there  of  a  new  species  of  bird.  It  was  in  1880, 
on  my  second  trip  to  the  West  Indies,  that  I  first  heard 
the  note  of  this  bird,  issuing  from  the  tree-ferns  of  a 
ravine  near  the  Soufriere  summit.     My  ear  had  been 


ST.  KITTS,  NEVIS,  MONTSERRATT     305 

trained  to  a  nicety  in  detecting  strange  bird-calls,  and 
this  one,  I  knew  at  once,  I  had  never  heard  before. 

Carefully  parting  the  vegetation  that  obscured  my 
vision,  I  peered  into  the  ravine  and  there  saw  a  bird  in 
black  and  orange  plumage,  a  modest  imitation  of  our 
golden  oriole,  poised  upon  a  branch.  The  sad  sequel 
is  that  I  shot  it,  and  ultimately  it  was  sent  to  Washing- 
ton, where  it  was  pronounced  absolutely  new  and  was 
named  after  its  discoverer.  The  genus  to  which  it 
belonged  was  well  known,  but  not  the  species,  so  to  the 
generic  name.  Icterus,  was  affixed  my  own  as  the  specific 
appellation,  making  it  the  Icterus  Oheri,  by  which  it  is 
called  by  ornithologists  to-day,  after  having  existed 
unknown  and  unnamed  ever  since  the  world  and  all  living 
things  were  created. 


CHAPTER   XIX 

ANTIGUA,  BARBUDA,  AND  OTHER  ISLES 

Antigua,  capital  of  the  Leeward  Islands  —  Saint  John  and  its 
cathedral  —  The  valley  of  petrifactions  —  English  Harbor, 
a  forgotten  naval  station  —  Barbuda  and  its  history  —  The 
Codrington  game  preserve  —  An  island  of  sinister  fame 
where  many  wrecks  have  taken  place  —  Wild  cattle,  fallow 
deer,  guinea-fowl,  pigeons,  and  doves  —  Buccaneer  tower 
and  the  great  house  —  Two  white  residents  and  eight  hun- 
dred negroes  —  Shooting  wild  guinea-birds  —  Feathered 
thunderbolts  —  Toothsome  pullets  with  tropic  concomitants 
—  Tramping  over  the  island  —  The  parson  takes  the  author 
out  deer-hunting  —  The  trip  to  Bat  Cave  —  Migratory  white- 
headed  pigeons  —  The  sea-grape  fruit  —  Shooting  birds  by 
moonlight — What  the  West  Indies  got  from  Africa  —  Troll- 
ing for  kingfish  and  dolphins  —  The  beach  with  blushes  of 
carmine  —  Anguilla,  Sombrero,  Saint  Barts,  and  Saint 
Martins. 

FOR  governmental  purposes,  the  British  islands  of 
the  Caribbees  have  been  arbitrarily  divided  into 
the  "  Leeward  "  and  "  Windward  "  groups,  the 
former  lying  to  the  north  and  the  latter  to  the  south  of 
north  latitude  fifteen  from  the  equator. 

The  seat  of  government  and  residence  of  the  governor- 
in-chief  is  Antigua,  an  island  about  a  hundred  square 
miles  in  area,  devoted  to  agriculture  in  general,  and  to 
sugar,  molasses,  and  rum  in  particular.  It  can  boast  of 
having  been  a  British  possession  for  270  years,  and,  like 
Barbados,  has  never  been  anything  but  English  since  it 
was  first  settled. 

306 


ANTIGUA   AND    OTHER    ISLES  307 

It  was,  the  aboriginal  Caribs  said,  too  dry  for  them, 
having  no  natural  springs  and  streams,  and  it  has  proved 
not  much  better  for  the  British  planters;  but  they  have 
stuck  there  with  more  than  praiseworthy  pertinacity,  and 
to-day  its  capital  and  only  town  of  Saint  John  is  a  place 
of  some  attractions  and  consequence.  By  a  strange  mis- 
chance, however,  the  capital  has  been  located  on  the 
worst  sort  of  a  harbor;  while  the  only  good  natural  port 
in  the  island,  English  Harbor,  seized  long  ago  as  a  naval 
station,  has  hardly  more  than  a  single  inhabitant. 

I  wish  I  could  convey  to  the  reader  an  exact  estimate 
of  Antigua's  charms;  but  that,  I  fear,  is  impossible,  for 
one  must  have  been  there  to  appreciate  them,  as  they 
were  of  the  hospitable  sort.  The  island  has  few  natural 
attractions;  but  there  is  a  wonderful  valley  of  petrifac- 
tions not  far  from  the  capital,  and  at  the  right  season  the 
lagoons  and  meadows  afford  fine  plover,  duck,  and  cur- 
lew shooting  to  one  inclined  that  way,  while  the  fields  and 
pastures  are  always  inviting — provided  water  enough  has 
fallen  from  the  clouds  to  make  them  green.  With  a 
gently  rolling  surface,  rarely  rising  into  hills,  and  with 
large  areas  of  sugar-cane  in  cultivation,  dotted  with  mills 
and  habitations,  Antigua  is  refreshing  to  view,  as  a 
-decided  contrast  to  the  more  rugged  islands  of  the  chain. 

I  do  not  desire  to  treat  Antigua  slightingly;  but,  taking 
a  general  survey  of  its  attractions, — or,  rather,  lack  of 
them, — there  does  not  seem  to  be  enough  in  the  aggre- 
gate to  warrant  a  visit.  And  yet,  if  one  should  go  there 
furnished  with  the  proper  credentials  to  some  member  of 
its  official  society,  I  doubt  not  that  a  month  could  be 
passed  very  agreeably  indeed.  It  may  be  my  misfortune 
— perhaps  it  is  my  fault — that  I  incline  more  to  the  lesser- 
known  islands,  and  those  seldom  visited,  shunning  cities 


3oS        OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

and  society  in  general,  and  "  taking  to  the  woods  "  when- 
ever opportunity  offers.  But  I  have  held,  for  many 
years,  and  hold  to  the  opinion  still,  that  the  out-of-the- 
way  places  are  the  best  worth  investigating.  Now,  there 
is  an  island  about  thirty  miles  north  of  Antigua,  of  which 
it  is  a  dependency,  where  the  steamers  never  touch 
(except  they  run  against  some  one  of  its  numerous  reefs, 
and  then  they  remain  for  good  and  all)  and  whtre  the 
tourist  never  goes.  This  island  is  Barbuda,  about  ten 
miles  long,  with  an  area  of  seventy-five  square  miles,  the 
greater  portion  covered  with  dense  forest  or  chaparral. 

About  thirty  years  after  the  planters  had  settled  in 
Antigua  the  French  from  Martinique  combined  with  a 
band  of  Carib  Indians  to  ravage  the  island  with  fire  and 
sword,  taking  away  all  the  negro  slaves  and  plundering 
the  white  people  of  everything  they  possessed,  even  to 
the  clothing  on  their  backs  and  the  shoes  on  their  feet. 
For  several  years  after  this  event  the  Antiguans  were 
unable  to  make  head  against  their  many  calamities,  but 
about  the  year  1674  there  came  here,  from  Barbados,  a 
wealthy  and  honorable  gentleman  of  distinguished  family. 
Colonel  Codrington,  who  set  an  example  to  the  others 
by  planting  the  waste  lands  with  sugar-cane.  He  was 
later  made  captain-general  and  commander-in-chief  of  all 
the  Leeward  Islands,  and  thus  was  the  first  of  a  long  line 
of  sub-governors,  which  has  existed  to  the  present  time. 

To  Colonel  Codrington  Barbados  owes  its  charming 
seat  of  learning,  Codrington  College,  founded  by  him 
about  1 7 10,  and  in  many  other  ways  he  showed  his  pub- 
lic spirit  and  interest  in  the  welfare  of  these  islands. 

Colonel  Codrington,  it  seems,  had  an  eye  to  personal 
aggrandizement,  and  early  in  his  rule  obtained  possession 
of  the   outlying  island  of  Barbuda.     It  was   not   long 


ANTIGUA  AND  OTHER  ISLES  309 

before  he  had  stocked  it  with  cattle,  sheep,  fallow  deer 
from  England,  and  guinea-fowl,  so  that  we  may  safely 
say  that  the  island  was  made  a  game  preserve  more  than 
200  years  ago.  And,  as  those  cattle,  sheep  and  deer  soon 
ran  wild,  while  the  island  was  the  natural  home  of  doves, 
pigeons,  plover,  curlew  and  many  other  birds,  it  goes 
without  saying  that  Barbuda  became  so  well  stocked  that 
royalty  itself  would  not  scorn  to  own  it  and  to  shoot  there 
on  occasion. 

Some  negro  slaves  and  an  overseer  were  sent  over  at 
the  time  of  the  first  settlement,  and  they,  too  (at  least 
the  blacks),  obeyed  the  injunction  literally  to  increase 
and  multiply.  At  the  beginning  of  this  century  there 
were  200  negro  residents  and  one  white ;  on  the  occasion 
of  my  visit,  a  few  years  ago,  there  were  about  800  black 
residents  and  two  white  men. 

In  the  year  181 3  the  British  man-of-war  "  Woolwich  " 
was  wrecked  at  Barbuda  in  a  furious  hurricane.  The 
officers  and  crew  escaped  to  the  island,  which  was 
described  by  the  captain,  who  wrote  that  it  had,  at  that 
time,  few  blacks  resident  there,  and  one  white  man,  the 
overseer  or  lessee.  An  income  of  about  $35,cxxd  was 
annually  derived  from  wrecks  and  sales  of  live  stock. 
Almost  the  entire  island  was  covered  with  wood  and  the 
stock  ran  wild — reckoned  at  3000  cattle,  40,000  sheep, 
400  horses,  and  300  deer.  Bull-hunting  was  a  sport  fre- 
quently indulged  in  with  blood-hounds  from  Puerto 
Rico.  By  means  of  cordons  of  negroes  vast  flocks  of 
sheep  were  driven  upon  narrow  necks  of  enclosed  land 
between  arms  of  the  sea,  and  thus  easily  captured  when 
wanted  for  market.  The  wild  cattle,  when  caught,  were 
lashed  to  the  horns  of  tame  oxen,  who  were  then  turned 
loose,  and  never  failed  eventually  to  conduct  them  to 


3to        OUk  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

headquarters.  Guinea-fowl,  even  then,  were  to  be  found 
in  profusion;  also  wild  duck,  plover,  and  snipe  in  their 
season,  pigeons,  turtle-doves,  etc.  Captain  Sullivan 
mentions  the  stone  castle,  built  by  the  buccaneers,  who 
used  to  resort  here  as  a  rendezvous,  after  the  dispersal  of 
the  French  and  English  of  St.  Kitts  about  1630. 

The  first  object  that  attracted  my  attention  as  the  little 
sloop  in  which  I  had  taken  passage  from  Antigua  arrived 
within  sight  of  Barbuda  was  a  quaint  old  martello  tower, 
which  once  pertained  to  a  castle,  erected  by  the  bucca- 
neers. There  were  no  other  structures  gf  note  in  sight, 
and  only  after  a  weary  walk  of  about  three  miles  was^  I 
cheered  by  arriving  at  the  "  great  house,"  built  in  the 
flourishing  times  of  the  Codringtons.  A  great  wall  had 
accompanied  me  along  the  road,  broad-topped,  high  and 
deeply  based,  showing  that  compulsory  labor  was  at  one 
time  abundant. 

The  white  gentlemen  residing  there  had  leased  the 
island  from  the  Crown  and  were  ''  working  it  for  all  it 
was  worth."  One  of  them  was  a  clergyman  of  the 
Church  of  England,  and  the  other  a  planter  bred  to  the 
raising  of  sugar-cane  and  the  oversight  of  laborers;  so 
both  together  made  a  very  successful  combination.  As 
the  '*  parson  "  was  pledged  to  attend  to  the  spiritual  needs 
of  the  black  people  and  the  overseer  to  their  physical 
wants,  the  blacks  were  not  neglected.  They  worked 
hard  in  the  fields  six  days  in  the  week,  under  the  eye  of 
the  superintendent,  and  on  the  seventh  attended  services 
at  the  chapel. 

As  the  island  had  been  without  news  from  outside  for 
many  moons,  I  was  made  more  than  welcome,  and  im- 
mediately my  wants  were  made  known  I  was  furnished 
with  a  horse,  a  sable  servant  and  dog,  who  accompanied 


ANTIGUA  AND  OTHER  ISLES  311 

rue  on  my  excursions  afield.  Our  first  visit  was  to  a  vast 
inclosure  where  the  guinea-fowl  were  said  to  be  abun- 
dant, and  we  arrived  at  their  scratching  ground  about  mid- 
afternoon.  The  dog  put  up  a  fine  male  bird  and  I  let  go 
both  barrels  at  him  without  touching  a  feather.  It  was 
the  same  with  the  second  and  the  third  bird  that  got  up 
and  sailed  away  'into  the  dim  distance,  like  a  railroad 
train  making  up  for  lost  time. 

Puzzled  and  ashamed  at  my  poor  shooting,  I  vowed 
that  the  next  flock  I  saw  on  the  ground  should  not  be 
allowed  to  take  wing  without  a  pot  shot,  anyway;  but 
even  then  there  was  somehow  a  discrepancy  between  my 
anticipations  and  realizations.  I  never  before  in  my  life 
saw  such  fast  birds  on  the  wing  nor  such  rapid  ones 
afoot.  They  were  thoroughly  wild,  and  probably  had 
been  for  many  generations. 

At  last,  as  the  sun  was  sinking  behind  the  sea-grapes 
on  the  shore,  we  approached  an  old  field  where,  my  guide 
said,  there  was  sure  to  be  a  flock  "  dusting,"  and  if  warily 
approached  could  be  taken  easily.  This  time,  as  the 
chattering  fowl  hurled  themselves  into  the  air,  I  caught 
two  of  them,  right  and  left,  by  firing  ahead  of  them  about 
half  a  rod,  it  seemed  to  me.  Anyway,  they  tumbled  end 
over  end,  and  I  was  rewarded  for  my  hours  of  toil 
beneath  the  ardent  rays  of  a  tropical  sun.  The  pair 
weighed  seven  pounds,  and  that  night  we  had  the 
tenderer  of  the  two,  a  comely  pullet,  roasted  for  dinner. 
It  was  brought  to  the  table  garnished  with  all  sorts  of 
good  things,  the  huge  platter  on  which  it  lay  being  borne 
aloft  upon  the  head  of  a  grinning  cook  who  could  boast 
lineal  descent  from  the  very  first  of  his  line  brought  to 
the  island  by  ''  Massa  Codrington." 

And  it  was  toothsome — the'  pullet — despite  the  haste 


312       OUR  WEST  INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

with  which  it  had  been  divested  of  its  feathers  and  driven 
direct  to  the  spit.  This  hurried  mode  of  preparation  was 
not  due  to  any  exigency  of  the  occasion,  but  to  the  cuH- 
nary  customs  of  the  tropics.  The  people  of  the  islands 
have  no  cold  storage,  hardly  any  of  them  refrigerators. 
The  journey  from  the  coop  or  fowl  yard  to  the  pot  or 
spit  is  only  delayed  long  enough  to  deprive  the  victim  of 
such  portion  of  its  tegumentary  covering  and  internal 
arrangements  as  are  considered  superfluous ;  and  the  hen, 
cock,  or  chicken  that  gazes  up  at  you  so  unsuspiciously 
as  you  arrive  at  the  great  house,  an  hour  or  so  later  may 
be  reposing  on  a  platter  with  its  toes  turned  up  to  the 
ceiling.  The  smaller  fowls,  particularly  pigeons  and 
chickens,  are  generally  roasted  with  their  feet  on,  and  as 
they  lie  on  their  backs  in  supplicatory  pose  they  present 
a  most  affecting  spectacle. 

After  a  refreshing  night  beneath  the  mosquito  curtains, 
at  dawn  next  morning  I  was  called  for  a  bath,  and  then, 
swallowing  a  biscuit  and  cup  of  strong  coffee,  was  off 
with  my  guide  for  the  deer  preserve.  Whatever  may  be 
the  heat  of  the  day  in  those  islands,  the  nights  and  early 
mornings  are  delightfully  cool;  so  we  tramped  through 
the  lanes  and  cross  the  fields  to  the  woods  as  vigorously 
as  though  taking  a  spin  in  the  north.  The  woods  were 
dense,  and  we  merely  skirted  their  borders,  keeping  well 
in  their  shadows,  for  at  that  hour  the  deer  would  be  feed- 
ing mostly  in  the  open  fields.  Finally  my  man  pointed 
eagerly  ahead  to  a  bunch  of  wild  cattle  grazing  quietly 
about  300  yards  away,  and  exclaimed :  "  Look  dah,  sah ; 
yander's  a  fine  buck,  right  close  t'  dat  ole  bull.  My  heart, 
what  ho'ns  he  got!"  Unfortunately  for  the  success  of 
my  plans,  the  cur  dog  with  us,  who  always  jogged  at  our 
heels  when  wanted  ahead  on  the  trail,  saw  or  sniffed  the 


ANTIGUA  AND  OTHER  ISLES  313 

deer  at  the  same  time,  and  immediately  straightened  out 
his  crooked  legs  and  darted  off  in  the  direction  of  the 
herd,  yelping  in  a  way  that  would  have  waked  the  dead. 
Of  course,  no  deer  in  possession  of  his  faculties  would 
wait  for  us  after  that  rude  salutation,  and  there  was  a 
lightning-Hke  stampede,  not  only  of  three  bucks  and 
does,  which  had  been  feeding  unobserved,  but  of  the  wild 
cattle  in  whose  company  they  were. 

We  tramped  all  that  morning,  saw  several  deer  at  a 
distance,  and  signs  of  an  innumerable  multitude;  but  the 
only  real  satisfaction  I  experienced  was  when  William 
Jack,  my  guide,  after  a  hard  chase,  captured  and  "  lam- 
basted dat  fool  dawg  "  until  he  begged  for  mercy. 

Said  Mr.  Hopkins,  the  overseer,  as  we  sat  on  the  ve- 
randa after  dinner :  "  Day  after  to-morrow  is  Sunday, 
and  the  only  day  I  have  off.  Just  keep  shy  of  the  parson 
and  I'll  put  you  up  to  a  bunch  of  deer  that  have  never 
been  shot  at.     But  mum's  the  word,  my  boy." 

Said  the  parson,  as  he  lighted  me  to  my  room  that 
night :  "I've  got  my  sermon  finished  and  not  much  to 
do  to-morrow.  I'll  take  you  with  me  over  to  Bat  Cave, 
and  if  we  don't  get  a  fine,  fat  buck,  going  or  coming  back, 
there  will  be  something  amiss." 

When  the  overseer  saw  us  ambling  off,  "  an  hour  by 
sun,"  on  Saturday  morning,  he  put  his  tongue  in  his 
cheek  and  nodded  significantly,  as  if  to  say :  "  So  ho,  if 
you  go  with  the  parson  to-day  then  you'll  have  to  attend 
chapel  with  him  to-morrow."  But  he  took  it  good- 
naturedly. 

It  was  a  most  enjoyable  ride  we  had  along  the  shore 
to  Bat  Cave,  where  the  Caribs  once  encamped  and  left 
behind  their  stone  implements  of  warfare  as  tokens  of 
their  presence  here  in  the  distant  past.     Then  we  routed 


314       OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

and  followed  for  a  while  a  flock  of  wild  sheep,  finally 
arriving  at  a  big  ceiba  tree  in  the  corner  of  a  wall,  where 
the  shade  was  grateful  and  the  protection  complete. 

Directing  our  sable  attendant  to  take  the  horses  back  a 
bit  on  the  trail,  the  parson  told  me  to  creep  up  to  the  wall 
and  peep  through  a  chink  between  the  stones,  at  the  same 
time  making  no  noise.  I  did  so,  wonderingly  but  still 
alert,  for  I  knew  there  must  be  method  in  his  proceedings, 
and  w^as  rewarded  by  seeing  something  that  caused  me  to 
tremble  and  clutch  my  gun  convulsively.  I  glanced  back 
at  my  friend  to  assure  myself  that  he  was  not  playing,  a 
joke  on  me;  for,  there  in  front  of  me,  not  forty  yards 
away,  was  a  fallow  "  buck  complete,"  as  big  and  as  stately 
as  any  that  ever  coursed  through  any  English  park. 

The  wind  was  from  him  to  us,  so  he  suspected  nothing, 
and,  with  the  suspicion  still  upon  me  that  the  parson  was 
putting  me  up  to  a  domesticated  deer,  I  asked  him  with 
my  eyes  if  I  should  shoot.  He  nodded  yes,  and  shoot  I 
did,  with  the  result  that  the  spare  horse  we  had  brought 
along — and  ^t  the  sight  of  which  Hopkins,  the  overseer, 
had  laughed  himself  almost  ill — was  laden  with  the  big- 
gest buck  of  the  season  as  we  returned  homeward  that 
forenoon. 

Toothsome  venison  that  night  for  dinner,  together  with 
the  omnipresent  guinea-bird  and  concomitants  of  tropic 
vegetables  and  fruits,  made  a  feast  fit  for  anybody,  the  re- 
membrance of  which,  even  at  this  day  so  far  distant, 
causes  a  thrill  of  pleasure,  thinking  of  what  I  once  en- 
joyed, though  now  debarred.  And  the  next  day  not  only 
did  I  attend  chapel  (so  grateful  was  I  to  the  parson),  but 
also  induced  the  overseer  to  go  with  me,  much  to  the  joy 
of  our  clerical  friend,  who  was  nearly  overcome  by  the 
unusual  happening. 


ANTIGUA  AND  OTHER  ISLES  315 

I  do  not  know  if  the  genial  overseer,  Mr.  Hopkins,  is 
yet  alive,  nor  if  the  hospitable  parson  who  "  put  me  on 
to  "  the  fallow  deer  is  still  caring  for  the  unregenerate 
blacks ;  but  if  they  are  not,  doubtless  they  left  successors, 
who  will  accord  the  visitor  a  most  generous  reception. 
One  thing  is  certain,  there  is  no  island  of  the  West  Indies 
better  stocked  with  game  of  the  sort  I  have  mentioned 
than  this  of  Barbuda. 

Along  with  the  negro,  when  he  was  torn  from  his 
native  Africa  and  transported  to  the  West  Indies,  came 
some  products  of  the  animal  and  vegetable  kingdoms  not 
enumerated  on  the  manifests — as,  for  instance,  a  vStock 
of  African  superstitions  and  religious  customs  which 
have  developed  into  the  serpent  sorcery  practiced  by  the 
mountaineers  of  Haiti  and  other  islands;  guinea-grass, 
guinea-corn,  and  finally  guinea-birds  or  fowls,  all  of 
which  have  done  well  in  the  American  tropics. 

Like  the  negro,  the  guinea-fowl  has  found  the  climate 
and  productions  of  the  southern  islands  just  suited  to 
its  warmblooded  and  vivacious  nature,  and  in  certain 
parts  of  Cuba,  Puerto  Rico,  Jamaica,  and  other  smaller 
islands,  has  become  the  leading  game  bird  of  the  country. 
There  is,  in  fact,  no  wild  feathered  game  to  rival  it,  either 
in  size  or  quality,  throughout  all  the  West  Indies. 

Barbuda  is  not  the  only  island  of  the  Caribbees  out  of 
touch  with  steamers  and  civilization,  for  there  are  some 
much  larger  and  more  populous  to  the  west  and  north- 
west, like  Sombrero,  so-called  because  it  resembles  a  gray 
felt  hat  at  a  distance;  Anguilla,  the  salt  island;  Saint 
Barts,  which  was  once  owned  by  France  and  Sweden 
conjointly,  but  now  belongs  to  the  latter  country,  though 
the  inhabitants  all  speak  English ;  and  Saint  Martin, 
which,  though  only  thirty-eight  square  miles  in  area,  is 


3i6        OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

divided  between  the  French  and  the  Dutch.  Of  them  all, 
perhaps,  the  island  of  Saint  Barts,  or  Bartholomew,  is  the 
best  known,  though  the  phosphate  workings  on  Sombrero 
have  made  it  somewhat  celebrated ;  for  Saint  Barts  was 
anciently  the  eastern  headquarters  of  the  buccaneers, 
especially  of  the  fierce  Montbars,  the  ''  Exterminator," 
who  made  its  sheltered  and  beautiful  port  his  rendezvous. 
Along  with  'Statia  and  the  Dutch  islands  generally,  Saint 
Barts  became  the  resort  of  privateers,  as  it  had  been  of 
buccaneers  during  the  American  Revolution,  and  lost,  it 
is  said,  more  than  two  million  dollars'  worth  of  contraband 
goods  in  1782,  which  were  seized  by  Admiral  Rodney. 
The  island  is  practically  defunct  now,  having  lost  all  but 
its  prestige  and  its  natural  beauties  of  surface  and  shore, 
being  merely  a  dependency  of  Guadeloupe. 

Saint  Martin  is  the  finest  of  the  group,  with  lofty  hills, 
and  one  mountain.  Paradise  Peak,  nearly  2000  feet  in 
height.  The  French  population  of  its  northern  half  reside 
in  or  near  the  quaint  old  town  of  Marigot,  while  the  Hol- 
landers occupy  the  port  of  Philipsburg,  on  the  south 
shore,  as  their  capital. 

These  islands  may  be  reached  by  sailing  vessels  from 
Antigua,  Guadeloupe,  or  Saint  Kitts,  and  to  the  student 
of  nature  and  man  have  much  to  offer  in  requital  for 
slight  discomforts  on  the  way  thither  and  on  shore. 


CHAPTER  XX 
GUADELOUPE  AND  THE  DIABLOTIN 

Guadeloupe,  largest  island  of  the  Caribbees  —  Famous  navigators 
who  have  sailed  these  waters  —  French  thrift  as  contrasted 
with  Creole  mismanagement  —  How  the  French  islands  are 
governed  —  The  preponderance  of  the  blacks  —  A  menace 
to  the  Caribbees  —  The  gendarmes  of  Guadeloupe  and  Mar- 
tinique—  French  colonial  system  not  yet  perfect  —  Arson 
and  pillage  by  the  blacks  —  The  two  parts  of  a  twin  island 

—  Pointe  a  Pitre  and  Basse  Terre  compared  —  The  mag- 
nificent mountains — Matouba  and  the  coffee  region  —  The 
Governor's  retreat  in  the  hills  —  Hot  baths  and  high-woods 

—  Climbing  to  the  crater  of  the  great  Soufriere  —  On  the 
trail  of  Pere  Labat  —  Hunting  the  devil-bird,  or  diablotin. 

j4  BOUT  one-third  down  the  Caribbean  Chain  lies 
/  \  Guadeloupe,  the  largest  island  in  it.  The  dis- 
X  JL  tance  from  Saba  to  Grenada,  these  two  islands 
representing  the  extremes  of  the  chain,  is  just  six  degrees 
of  latitude.  Guadeloupe  is  about  the  same  distance  from 
Saba  as  it  is  from  its  sister  French  island  of  Martinique, 
or  nearly  lOO  miles ;  Barbados,  off  to  the  windward,  is 
about  as  far  from  Saint  Vincent  as  the  latter  is  from 
Grenada,  and  the  last  named  equally  distant  from  Tobago 
and  Trinidad. 

Discovered  by  Columbus  in  November,  1493,  the  island 
called  by  the  natives  Turuqueira  was  named  by  him 
Guadalupe,  since  its  occupation  by  the  French  being 
known  as  Guadeloupe.  For  a  while  after  the  voyages  of 
Columbus  made  this  region  known,  the  Spaniards  had 

317 


31 8       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

it  all  to  themselves ;  but  about  thirty  years  after  its 
discovery  the  French  and  English  swarmed  into  the 
Caribbean  Sea,  and  began  to  squabble  over  the  islands 
as  if  they  alone  were  entitled  to  them  all.  French  cor- 
sairs and  British  privateers  made  the  Caribbee  Isles  their 
rendezvous,  while  both  combined  to  plunder  Spanish 
galleons  coming  up  from  the  isthmus  of  Panama  laden 
with  silver. 

Of  the  score  of  islands  which  France  won  by  her 
sword  and  settled  with  her  colonists  but  five  and  a  half 
remain  to  her  now,  within  the  confines  of  the  Caribbean 
Sea.  The  five  are  Guadeloupe,  Martinique,  Desirade, 
Marie  Galante,  the  Saintes,  and  a  moiety  of  the  insig- 
nificant island,  Saint  Martin.  Thousands  of  lives,  mill- 
ions of  treasure,  have  been  wasted  in  acquiring  and 
defending  these  islands  of  the  West  Indies,  yet  to-day 
not  one  is  profitable  to  the  nation  ow^ning  it. 

Of  the  two  large  islands  owned  by  France  in  the  West 
Indies  Guadeloupe  is  the  greater  in  area,  consisting 
properly  of  two  islands — one  an  immense  mountain  mass, 
with  beautiful  valleys  and  forest-covered  hills,  an  inac- 
tive volcano,  hot  and  mineral  springs,  and  coflfee  planta- 
tions. Separated  from  the  mountainous  island  by  a 
sluggish  creek,  the  Riviere  Salee,  running  through  man- 
grove swamps,  is  the  lowland  portion,  called  the  Grande 
Terre,  with  level  surface,  rich  soil,  and  plantations  of 
sugar-cane.  All  over  and  throughout  this  double  island 
are  the  best  of  roads,  even  running  up  to  the  woods  that 
border  on  the  gloomy  crater  of  the  quiescent  volcano. 

Here,  as  well  as  in  the  sister  colony  of  Martinique,  will 
be  noted  the  thrift  and  good  management  of  the  French, 
as  contrasted  with  the  shiftless  methods  of  the  Spanish 
formerlv    in    Cuba    and    Puerto    Rico.      Wherever   the 


GUADELOUPE  AND  THE  DIABLOTIN     319 

French  go,  there  they  carry  with  them  good  roads  and 
generally  good  government.  We  may  truly  term  them 
the  Roman  road-builders  of  the  present  day,  for  through- 
out all  their  domains,  colonial  as  well  as  continental,  they 
construct  broad,  straight  highways,  smooth  as  marble 
and  as  hard  as  iron.  The  writer  has  seen  them  in  these 
islands  as  well  as  in  Algiers,  on  the  borders  of  the  Sahara, 
their  smooth  surfaces  a  delight  to  the  eye  and  a  joy  to 
travel  over. 

Although  Guadeloupe  is  French  all  the  way  through, 
French  the  language  spoken,  and  a  French  patois  the 
speech  of  the  lowliest,  yet  there  are  comparatively  few  na- 
tives here  now  of  La  Belle  France.  In  the  matter  of  gov- 
ernment the  island  is  more  at  the  mercy  of  the  national 
system  than  at  fault  through  local  blunders.  That  is, 
since  all  Frenchmen  persist  in  calling  their  compatriots, 
home  and  colonial,  "  men  and  brothers,"  it  has  finally 
come  to  pass  that  the  local  legislatures  and  assemblies  are 
controlled  by  the  blacks,  who  are  in  a  vast  majority. 

Their  preponderance  has  become  a  grave  problem,  in 
fact,  not  alone  in  the  French  islands,  but  in  the  English, 
Dutch,  and  Danish.  Whatever  men  may  say  to  the  con- 
trary, it  is  the  tendency  of  the  black  to  revert  to  primi- 
tive conditions,  finally  (as  in  Haiti)  to  lapse  into  a  state 
of  semi-barbarism,  unless  held  in  check  by  a  superior 
body  of  whites. 

Now,  this  is  not  a  theory,  but  a  very  serious  condition, 
and  it  confronts  the  West  Indians,  menaces  them  contin- 
ually, despite  the  fact  that  they  have  labored  hard  to  bring 
their  respective  colonial  dependencies  to  the  high  level 
of  the  home  countries.  It  is  only  by  the  most  earnest 
and  aggressive  sort  of  work  that  they  have  been  able  to 
keep  their  noses  above  water,  even;  and,  as  it  is,  they 


320       OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

have  been  forced  to  witness  a  constant  degeneration  of 
moral  tone  in  communities  and  a  persistent  deterioration 
in  realties. 

Their  only  salvation,  they  now  realize,  lies  in  main- 
taining the  integrity  of  appointments  by  the  home  gov- 
ernment as  checks  upon  the  extravagance  and  prospec- 
tive lawlessness  of  the  local  assemblies.  Thus,  the  head 
of  the  insular  government,  the  governor,  is  appointed 
from  France — invariably  a  white  man  of  high  standing — 
as  are  also  several  of  the  higher  officials.  Again,  to 
further  offset  the  possible  centralization  of  power  in  the 
hands  of  the  island  police,  who  are  mainly  black  and 
colored,  in  each  important  center,  town,  or  village  is 
quartered  a  squad  of  picked  gensdarmes,  recruited  in  the 
home  country. 

Respecting  the  French  colonial  system  as  applied  to 
the  West  Indian  islands,  an  American  resident  at  one 
time  in  Guadeloupe  wrote  me :  "  Any  system  of  govern- 
ment primarily  intended  for  the  benefit  of  a  colony  will, 
if  persisted  in,  ultimately  result  in  good  for  both  colony 
and  mother  country;  but  no  system  which  is  liable  to 
constant  change,  and  which  is  consistent  only  in  seeking 
the  immediate  benefit  of  the  home  country,  can  result 
otherwise  than  as  here.  Every  new  Minister  of  Col- 
onies in  France  brings  to  his  work  the  superb  courage  of 
utter  ignorance.  He  demolishes  the  half -completed 
labor  of  his  predecessor  and  leaves  his  own  rough  foun- 
dations and  scaffoldings  to  be  destroyed  by  his  successor. 

"  They  all  alike  seek  to  make  something  out  of  the  col- 
ony merely,  and  have  not  the  courage  to  work  on  broad, 
generous  lines  for  the  benefit  of  both  colony  and  mother- 
land in  the  future.  The  history  of  this  unfortunate 
colony  amply  proves  this.     To-day  we  have  a  horde  of 


Cascade  in  the  Jardin  des  Planter 


GUADELOUPE  AND   THE   DIABLOTLN  321 

emotional  negroes,  drunk  with  a  little  learning,  crazed 
with  anger  against  the  ill-concealed  scorn  of  the  whites, 
furious  under  a  false  equality  they  cannot  sustain,  blindly 
seeking  redress  more  for  imaginary  than  real  evils,  and, 
African  like,  finding  their  readiest  remedy  in  blood  and 
fire  (as  in  Haiti).  They  have  sworn  to  drive  the  white 
man  hence — and  they  will  do  it  yet!  It  will  mean  ruin 
to  them;  but  they  cannot  see  that;  they  see  only  the 
immediate  destruction  of  the  white  man's  property,  and 
himself,  also — if  possible." 

This  letter  was  evoked  by  the  fact  that  incendiary  fires 
in  Pointe  a  Pitre,  the  capital  of  Guadeloupe,  accom- 
panied by  a  rising  of  the  blacks,  had  worked  ruin  and 
destruction  in  that  city.  Arson  and  pillage  are  not  new 
troubles  with  which  the  island  government  has  to  con- 
tend, for,  looking  back  to  my  first  visit  to  Guadeloupe, 
more  than  twenty  years  before  this  letter  was  written, 
I  recall  that  even  then  they  were  going  on.  And  yet,  on 
the  surface,  Guadeloupe  appears  to  be  the  best  governed 
and  most  refined  of  the  insular  colonies. 

Its  chief  port  is  that  of  Pointe  a  Pitre,  which  is  in 
the  Grande  Terre  portion  of  the  double  island,  and  shel- 
tered, but  right  in  the  path  of  the  hurricanes;  so  that 
between  .the  incendiaries  and  the  cyclones  the  ''  Pointe  " 
has  suffered  considerably.  Writing  twenty-five  years 
ago,  on  the  occasion  of  my  first  visit  there,  I  remarked: 
"  The  loss  of  life  in  these  successive  disasters  (of  hurri- 
canes, earthquakes,  and  fires)  has  been  fearful;  but  these 
courageous  Creoles  have  faith  in  the  future  of  their  city, 
and  I  doubt  if  they  once  give  a  thought  to  the  rriighty 
power  against  which  they  are  contending — that  they  are 
fighting  forces  controlled  by  nature's  laws,  that  will 
always  operate  in  the  same  manner  and  place,  without 


322       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS  . 

regard  to  the  little  doings  of  mankind."  The  sequel  has 
proved  that  they  had  better  have  abandoned  their  badly- 
situated  capital  once  for  all,  especially  as  it  is  at  times 
fever-stricken,  and  always  plagued  with  mosquitoes. 

Then,  as  now,  Pointe  a  Pitre  was  the  center  of  business 
and  the  outlet  of  the  sugar  industry,  at  that  time  even 
boasting  the  second  largest  "  ursine  "  or  central  sugar 
factory  in  the  world.  The  Grande  Terre  portion  is 
almost  entirely  level,  having  a  siriiilar  geological  structure 
or  composition  to  Antigua,  but  being  more  fertile. 
There  are  miles  and  miles  of  sugar-cane  in  that  low-lying 
portion  of  Guadeloupe,  and  nearest  to  it  lie  the  imme- 
diate dependencies,  Desirade  and  Marie  Galante,  while 
the  Saintes  are  further  to  the  south. 

These  are  extremely  picturesque  islets,  being  elevated 
and  terraced,  some  of  them  having  thermal  springs,  and 
formerly  in  repute  as  watering-places.  Historically, 
they  belong  to  the  most  interesting  islands  of  the  Carib- 
bees,  for  they  were  among  the  first  of  any  discovered  by 
Columbus  on  his  second  voyage  in  1493,  ^^^  still 
retain  the  name  he  bestowed  upon  them,  changed  only 
from  the  Spanish  to  the  French,  like  the  great  island  of 
which  they  are  dependencies. 

A  small  steamer  trips  over  to  the  islets  once  a  week, 
and  there  is  a  semi-weekly  local  connecting  Pointe  a 
Pitre  (through  the  Riviere  Salee)  with  Basse  Terre, 
which  is  the  seat  of  government  and  capital.  There  is 
also  a  diligence  route  along  the  southern  and  eastern 
shores  of  Guadeloupe  proper,  by  which  a  pleasant  jour- 
ney may  be  made  between  the  two  points  in  about  eight 
hours,  including  a  steam  launch  across  the  Cul  de  Sac  of 
Pointe  a  Pitre. 

Basse  Terre   was   found   in    1703   by  that   good   old 


GUADELOUPE  AND  THE  DIABLOTIN     323 

preacher  and  traveler,  Pere  Labat.  He  was  known  as 
the  "  belHcose  White  Father,"  the  traditions  state,  because 
he  could  fight  as  well  as  preach.  The  town  is  full  of 
his  monuments — such  as  the  hurricanes  have  spared 
— chief  of  which  is  the  old  Basilique  of  Basse  Terre. 
Situated  on  an  open  roadstead,  Basse  Terre  has  not  the 
advantages  of  the  Pointe ;  but  it  is  better  worth  seeing, 
being  so  near  the  mountains  as  to  partake  of  their  attrac- 
tions. It  has  a  plaza,  in  the  center  of  which  is  a  fountain 
supplied  with  water  from  the  mountain  streams,  and  sur- 
rounding which  are  substantial  houses  of  stone. 

As  the  heat  along  shore  is  always  intense,  and  particu- 
larly in  our  summer  months,  all  the  w^hite  people  who  can 
do  so  take  refuge  in  the  hills  and  mountains.  Guad- 
eloupe has  a  vast  range  with  numerous  peaks  rising 
above  two  or  three  thousand  feet,  while  its  chief  eleva- 
tion, the  volcano  or  Soufriere,  is  about  5000  feet.  Good 
roads  lead  into  the  hills  and  all  the  summits  are  more  or 
less  accessible,  especially  the  cone  of  the  volcano. 

During  my  first  visit  here  I  hunted  in  the  hills  and 
scaled  the  Soufriere,  sought  out  the  beautiful  water- 
falls, and  bathed  in  the  tepid  streams;  so  I  may  be 
allowed  to  speak  as  if  "  by  the  card  "  of  Guadeloupe's 
various  attractions.  My  first  venture  was  at  a  little 
mountain  hamlet  overlooking  the  Caribbean  Sea  called 
Matouba,  where  for  ten  days  I  roamed  the  hills  and 
valleys  in  quest  of  birds.  Learning  that  there  was  a 
gentleman  who  spoke  English  in  the  neighboring  com- 
mune— of  which  he  was  the  mayor,  in  fact — I  one  day 
wended  my  way  thither,  to  be  greeted  cordially  by 
Monsieur  Saint-Felix  Colardeau,  a  graduate  of  Yale,  who 
had  lived  for  several  years  in  the  Northern  States.  Hav- 
ing fallen  heir  to  a  beautiful  coffee  estate  amid  the  foot- 


324        OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

hills  of  the  Soufriere,  he  had  abandoned  his  practice  of 
medicine  and  settled  down  to  a  life  of  seclusion. 

Though  a  perfect  stranger  to  him,  he  insisted  that  I 
should  take  up  my  abode  with  him  until  I  had  secured 
the  birds  I  wanted  and  explored  the  volcano.  This  I 
did,  of  course,  and  am  indebted  to  my  good  friend  for 
many  an  hour  filled  with  information  respecting  things 
new  and  strange  to  me  then.  A  dozen  years  later,  when 
I  revisited  the  island,  M.  Colardeau,  who  was  then 
director  of  the  Jardin*  des  Plantes,  introduced  me  offici- 
ally to  the  Governor,  M.  Nouet,  who  invited  me  to  spend 
a  week  or  so  at  his  "  hotel  "  at  Camp  Jacob. 

The  Governor's  country  seat  in  the  mountains  was  in 
the  vicinity  of  M.  Colardeau's  estate,  where  I  had  passed 
so  many  happy  hours,  and  whence  I  had  made  my  ascent 
of  the  Soufriere.  There  were  at  that  time  more  than  a 
thousand  coffee  estates  in  Guadeloupe,  all,  of  course,  in 
the  mountainous  island,  and  the  air  was  fragrant  with 
coffee  blossoms,  the  hillsides  covered  with  plantations. 
Governor  Nouet  had  opened  trails  and  bridle-paths 
through  the  "  high-woods,"  as  the  great  mountain  forests 
are  called,  to  the  hot  springs  and  baths  therein  concealed. 
One  of  these  is  known  as  the  Bain  Jaune,  probably  so 
called  from  the  color  of  its  water,  which  is  tinged  as 
well  as  impregnated  with  sulphur. 

This  bath  is  near  the  skirts  of  the  woods  that  cover 
a  shoulder  of  the  Soufriere,  above  which  is  barrenness 
and  desolation.  As  the  Governor  and  I  were  taking  a 
dip  in  it  one  day,  and  he  was  telling  me  of  the  beauty  of 
the  ferns  above  on  the  trail  to  the  crater,  I  asked  him 
if  there  were  any  descriptions  extant  of  the  Soufriere 
which  would  inform  me  as  to  its  salient  features.  I 
recall  that  his  eyes  twinkled,  while  mine  dilated,  as  he 


GUADELOUPE  AND  THE  DIABLOTIN    325 

replied  that  the  first  description  he  had  ever  read,  and 
which  inspired  him  with  a  desire  to  achieve  the  ascent 
of  the  volcano,  was  one  written  by  myself ! 

Of  a  truth,  I  had  forgotten  it,  and  was  going  to 
"  tackle  "  that  volcano  as  if  it  were  something  I  had  never 
seen.  But,  as  the  Governor  reminded  me  of  different 
passages  in  my  description  of  the  ascent,  it  all  came  back 
to  me.  I  recalled  the  kindness  of  good  Madame  Col- 
ardeau,  who  provided  me  with  a  knapsack  full  of  cooked 
provisions,  and  the  thoughtfulness  of  her  husband  (dead, 
now,  and  gone  to  heaven,  rest  his  soul!),  who  furnished 
an  Indian  coolie  as  a  guide. 

What  joy  was  mine  as  I  plunged  into  the  fresh,  dank 
vegetation  of  the  high-woods  and  essayed  the  climb  up 
the  heights  beyond !  There  were  the  mighty  gommier 
trees,  with  broad  buttresses  twenty  feet  across,  and  leafy 
crowns  that  merged  in  the  common  canopy  a  hundred 
feet  above  my  head.  And  the  lianas,  the  vines  and  bush- 
ropes,  which  descended  to  earth  as  if  dropped  down  from 
the  skies,  were,  some  of  them,  as  large  as  hawsers  and 
cables,  and  adorned  with  a  world  of  aerial  blossoms. 

Reaching  a  stream  the  waters  of  which  were  warm,  I 
traced  it  to  its  source  in  a  spring  that  gushed  from  under 
the  hill,  coming  straight  from  Nature's  arcanum  in  the 
heart  of  the  volcano.  I  followed  it  up,  finally  striking  the 
trail  to  the  crater-cone,  my  guide  going  ahead  and  tunnel- 
ing out  a  path  through  the  ferns  with  his  machete.  For 
hours,  it  seemed  to  me,  we  burrowed  through  the  dank, 
dwarfed  growth,  then  suddenly  daylight  looked  in  and  I 
saw  before  me  the  cone  of  the  volcano.  Imagine,  I 
wrote  at  the  time,  an  immense  pyramid  truncated  by  some 
internal  force,  that  has  rent  its  sides  at  the  same  time, 
leaving  the  summit-plane  around  strewn  with  huge  rocks, 


326       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

and  a  mighty  chasm  where  'twas  reft  in  twain,  and  you 
have  the  Soufriere  of  Guadeloupe  to-day. 

That  "  to-day "  is  now  yesterday,  a  quarter-century 
gone;  but,  so  far  as  I  can  ascertain,  the  crater  is 
unchanged.  Ravines  seamed  the  sides  of  the  cone  in  every 
direction,  some  spanned  by  bridges  of  natural  rock;  but 
that  to  which  I  constantly  recurred  was  the  great  central 
gorge,  with  its  wicked-looking  throat,  from  which  there 
have  been  only  two  eruptions  recorded  within  little  more 
than  a  century:  one  in  1797,  and  another  in  1815. 
Doubtless  it  may  again  act  as  the  vent  for  the  internal 
ebullitions  of  mother  earth — as  I  wrote  at  the  time  in  my 
journal — but  during  the  eruptions  of  Pelee  and^  the 
Soufriere  of  Saint  Vincent,  in  May,  1902,  the  Gaudeloupe 
giant  held  its  peace.  I  have  since  climbed  Popocatepetl, 
in  Mexico,  and  also  nearly  all  the  volcanoes  of  the  Ca- 
ribbees;  but  over  no  ascent  was  I  so  elated  as  on  this 
occasion — probably  because  it  was  my  first  one. 

How  the  solfataras  puffed  and  snorted,  the  sulphur 
crystals  gleamed,  the  blasts  of  hot  air  smote  my  face,  as 
I  rambled  over  the  area  of  desolation  within  the  crater! 
When  the  mist  lifted,  at  intervals,  I  caught  glimpses  of 
the  forests  down  below  in  which,  more  than  four  hundred 
years  before,  some  of  the  company  with  Columbus  were 
lost.  It  was  still  a  sloping  plain  of  verdure,  almost  as 
unbroken  and  impenetrable  as  in  the  last  decade  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  when  it  resounded  to  the  blare  of  trum- 
pets and  firing  of  arquebuses. 

Below  me  lay  the  Saintes,  a  cluster  of  islets,  seemingly 
close  to  the  cliffs  of  the  volcano,  discovered  and  named  by 
Columbus  on  All-Saints'  Day,  1493.  Northeast  from  me 
lay  Desirade,  the  first  island  he  sighted  on  that  second 
voyage,    and    almost    due    south    again    rose    dear    old 


GUADELOUPE   AND   THE  DIABLOTIN    327 

Dominica,  the  island  of  Sabbath  Day,  which  was  the  next 
to  greet  his  vision.  Ere  the  curtains  of  mist  drew  to- 
gether and  condensed  into  rain,  which  was  late  in  the 
afternoon,  I  had  penetrated  to  every  accessible  part  of  the 
crater,  not  only  in  my  pursuit  of  old  Vulcan,  but  in  search 
of  a  bird  which,  according  to  tradition,  used  to  have  its 
haunts  here.  Its  life-story  begins  away  back  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  and  was  first  told  to  the  public  at 
large  by  the  jolly  Pere  Labat,  roving  priest,  bon  vivant 
and  litterateur  withal,  who  journeyed  through  the  West 
Indies  more  than  two  hundred  years  ago. 

I  have  his  book  before  me  as  I  write:  "  Nouveau 
Voyage  aux  Isles  de  I'Amerique,"  published  1722,  and 
crammed  from  cover  to  cover  with  interesting  facts.  And 
the  good  old  Pere  (whom  I  have  always  loved,  though 
never  have  seen  in  the  flesh),  among  other  adventures, 
gives  a  detailed  account  of  his  quest  for  the  mysterious 
Diablotin,  or  ''  Little  Devil,"  a  bird  that  lived  in  the  cra- 
ters of  the  Caribbean  volcanoes,  and  went  forth  only 
at  night — which  devil-bird  I  thought  probably  identical 
with  the  "  Vedrigo  "  of  Saba,  or  related  to  it,  at  least 
generically.  That  it  was  not  does  not  prove  anything, 
for  I  went  in  search  of  it,  just  the  same,  about  one 
hundred  and  eighty  years  after  old  Labat,  and  in  the 
same  localities. 

The  bird  had  been  discovered  by  another  priest,  one 
Pere  du  Tertre,  about  1640,  and  he  had  left  such  an 
enticing  account  of  the  delicacy  of  its  flesh  that  Pere 
Labat  must  fain  go  also  in  quest  of  it.  And  he  found  it, 
too,  and  ate  of  its  flesh,  which  he  pronounced  very  fine — 
though  savoring  somewhat  of  fish — which  is  not  to  be 
wondered  at,  as  that  was  its  sole  subsistence. 

After  a  toilsome  journey  up  the   sides   of  this  very 


328       OUR  WEST  INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

Soufriere  of  Guadeloupe,  Pere  Labat  arrived  at  the 
crater-brim,  where  the  devil-birds  lived.  The  first  day 
he  and  his  chasseurs  obtained  fifteen,  which  they  killed 
and  cooked  on  the  spot.  They  camped  over  night  in  the 
crater,  where  the  hunters  built  a  frail  shelter  for  the 
priest;  but  the  latter  could  not  sleep,  on  account  of  the 
great  noise  made  by  the  Diablotins,  as  they  went  out  to 
sea  and  returned  in  the  darkness.  The  next  day  Labat 
and  his  black  hunters  caught  150  devil-birds,  and  ate 
their  fill  before  descending  the  volcano  to  the  settlement 
at  Basse  Terre. 

My  first  hunt  for  the  bird  was  in  the  island  of 
Dominica,  which  has  a  mountain  about  5000  feet  in 
height ;  but  I  did  not  find  it,  because,  as  I  was  told,  it  had 
been  exterminated  by  the  manacou,  a  native  'possum, 
which  had  sought  it  out  in  its  holes  and  devoured  its 
eggs.  Neither  was  I  successful  in  Guadeloupe ;  though  I 
had  hoped  the  bird  I  found  in  Saba,  another  volcanic 
island,  might  prove  to  be  the  veritable  Diablotin. 

The  bird  I  never  saw — or,  at  least,  never  knew  it  if  I 
saw  it — was  the  impelling  motive  for  many  a  hard  climb 
up  the  steep  sides  of  those  Caribbean  volcanoes,  and  in  my 
search  I  ascended  them  all,  from  isolated  Saba  in  the 
north  to  the  Soufrieres  of  Saint  Vincent  and  Grenada 
in  the  south.  I  passed  a  night  one  time  on  the  brim  of 
Saint  Eustatia's  perfect  crater-cone  (as  already  nar- 
rated) for  the  sole  purpose  of  observing  the  nocturnal 
sounds,  and  if  possible  scenes,  as  I  lay  there  wrapped  in 
my  blanket,  with  the  fierce  winds  whistling  around  me. 
I  thought  I  heard  the  voice  of  the  Little  Devil,  in  the  air 
above  me,  and  anxiously  peered  into  the  darkness,  gun 
a-poise ;  but  no  form  of  bird  rewarded  my  vigil,  and  in 
the  morning  I  returned  empty-handed  to  the  coast. 


CHAPTER  XXI 
DOMINICA,  AN  ISLAND  OF  WONDERS 

The  largest  island  of  the  Caribbees  —  Mentioned  in  the  "  World 
of  Wonders  " —  Things  that  make  Dominica  fascinating  — 
An  island  beautiful  —  My  first  glimpse  of  it  —  Its  fatal  gift 
—  What  Anthony  Trollope  said  about  it  —  How  he  spurred 
me  to  exploration  —  Roseau  the  island's  capital  —  Former 
residents  in  Dominica  —  The  foremost  scientist  in  the  Lesser 
Antilles  —  Wooing  Dame  Nature  in  the  woods  —  Zizi,  my 
mountaineer  guide  —  Iguanas,  trembleurs,  mountain  whis- 
tlers, and  humming  birds  —  The  sunset  bird,  which  received 
my  name  in  "  hog  Latin  "  —  Anecdote  of  Lucy  Larcom  and 
Whittier  —  The  region  of  the  Boiling  Lake  —  When  it  was 
discovered,  and  when  first  photographed  —  An  ajoupa  in  the 
wilderness  —  Taking  an  old-time  photograph  —  The  petit 
soufricre  —  Hot  streams,  cold  streams,  and  boiling  springs  — 
First  glimpse  of  the  Boiling  Lake  —  The  rent  in  the  wall 
through  which  Martinique  was  visible  —  The  tragedy  in 
Dominica  five  months  before  the  eruption  of  Mont  Pelee  — 
A  night  march  with  corpses  through  the  forest  —  The  guide 
who  was  scalded  to  death  —  Boiling  eggs  and  yams  in  the 
hot  springs. 

DOMINICA,  largest  and  loftiest  of  the  Lesser 
I  Antilles,  is  only  thirty  miles  in  length  by  fifteen 
in  breadth,  yet  contains  within  its  confines  so 
many  natural  attractions  as  to  have  received  merited 
mention  in  an  English  publication  called  the  "  World 
of  Wonders."  Its  wonder-in-chief  is  a  geyser  in  the 
mountains  known  as  the  Boiling  Lake;  but  the  moun- 
tains themselves,  with  their  tarns  embedded  in  tropical 
vegetation  more  than  two  thousand  feet  above  the  sea; 

329 


330       OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

the  cascades  and  waterfalls  that  gleam  against  their  lofty 
walls  of  rock;  the  forest-covered  monies  and  vine-hung 
precipices;  the  Edenic  vales  filled  with  lime-trees  and 
fringed  with  cocoa  palms,  and  the  rivers  that  flow  through 
them  and  mingle  their  sparkling  waters  with  the  foaming 
surf  on  silver-sanded  beaches — all  these  combine  to  make 
Dominica  fascinating. 

In  my  mind,  for  many  years,  Dominica  has  been  mir- 
rored, pictured,  as  the  ideal  "  island  beautiful,"  because, 
in  days  when  I  was  younger,  I  made  within  its  forests 
my  first  camp  in  region  purely  tropical.  Sailing  out  of 
the  ill-fated  port  of  Saint  Pierre,  Martinique,  one 
evening  of  a  December  long  ago,  with  a  fair  land-breeze 
from  the  mountains  and  a  smart  gale  drawing  through 
the  channel  between  the  islands,  the  drogher  I  had  taken 
passage  in  arrived  off  the  southern  end  of  Dominica  at 
midnight.  Then  the  wind  died  away,  being  cut  off  by 
the  mountains,  and  for  twenty  hours  we  drifted  hither 
and  thither  on  a  glassy  sea. 

During  those  twenty  hours  I  had  ample  opportunity 
to  study  the  contours  of  the  island,  from  curving  shore 
to  central  cordillera,  and  to  watch  the  changes  that  came 
over  it  as  the  sun  dissipated  the  mists  around  its  peaks 
and  in  its  valleys.  The  hill  summits  were  blue  and 
purple  in  distance,  within  them  a  cordon  of  lower  eleva- 
tions, guarding  valleys  deep  and  dark,  with  a  planter's 
house  here  and  there  gleaming  white,  a  palm-bordered 
beach  curving  between  frowning  promontories.  Domin- 
ica, one  writer  has  said,  possesses  the  "  fatal  gift  of 
beauty,"  meaning,  I  suppose,  that  she  has  too  many 
charms  to  be  useful;  but  this  is  not  quite  true.  While 
her  mountains  are  lofty,  her  valleys  traversed  by  swift 
and  turbulent   rivers  that  often  overflow  their  banks; 


DOMINICA  331 

and  while  miles  and  miles  of  forest  cover  the  hills,  she 
has  yet  many  thousand  acres  of  level,  fertile  soil,  much 
of  which  has  been  brought  under  cultivation. 

She  has  entered,  her  residents  say,  upon  a  career  of 
prosperity  long-delayed,  but  now  in  sight,  despite  her 
"  fatal  gift  of  beauty." 

Some  time  before  I  first  visited  Dominica  I  read  the 
work  of  Anthony  Trollope  on  the  West  Indies,  and  was 
so  much  impressed  by  something  which  he  said  could  not 
be  done  that  I  straightway  attempted  it. 

"  To  my  mind,"  he  said,  "  Dominica,  as  seen  from  the 
sea,  is  by  far  the  most  picturesque  of  all  these  islands. 
Indeed,  it  would  be  hard  to  beat  it  either  in  color  or 
grouping.  It  fills  one  with  an  ardent  desire  to  be  off 
and  rambling  among  these  mountains — as  if  one  could 
ramble  through  such  wild  bush  country,  or  ramble  at 
all  with  the  thermometer  at  eighty-five  degrees.  But 
when  one  has  only  to  think  of  such  things,  without  any 
idea  of  doing  them,  neither  the  bushes  nor  the  ther- 
mometer are  considered." 

I  not  only  thought  of  "  such  things  ": — as,  for  instance, 
camping  out  in  the  mountains  and  rambling  through  the 
forests — but,  after  living  a  while  in  the  coast  town  of 
Roseau,  just  long  enough  to  get  acquainted  and  take  my 
bearings,  I  hied  myself  to  those  same  mountains  which 
Mr.  Trollope  intimated  were  to  be  classed  as  among  the 
impossibles. 

Roseau,  the  reader  must  know,  is  a  little  dead-and- 
alive  town,  lying  along  the  shore  at  the  mouth  of  the 
river  from  which  it  derives  its  name.  It  is  exceedingly 
picturesque,  but  still  is  not  overwhelmingly  attractive  as 
a  place  of  residence ;  though  I  am  acquainted  with  some 
very  worthy  people  who  have  resided  there  for  more 


332        OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

than  the  average  span  of  Hfe.  All  were  friendly  to  the 
young  naturalist  who  came  to  them  a  stranger,  all  assisted 
me  to  achieve  my  ambition,  which  was  to  go  camping 
in  the  high-woods;  but  particularly  was  I  indebted  to  a 
young  physician  who  had  then  but  recently  come  out  from 
England  as  assistant  to  Doctor  Imray.  He  had  been 
there  three  or  four  years  at  the  time  of  our  first  meeting, 
and,  except  for  intervals  of  vacation  now  and  then,  he 
has  lived  there  ever  since,  or  nearly  thirty  years  in  all. 
Moreover,  he  has  pursued  as  active  a  career  as  most  of 
his  confreres  in  temperate  climates  can  boast,  working 
night  and  day  at  his  profession  and  at  scientific  research. 
Since  I  shall  not  directly  mention  his  name,  I  may  say 
that  he  is  recognized  as  the  foremost  botanist  and  medical 
Authority  in  the  West  Indies,  and  that  his  attainments 
brought  him  an  honorary  title  from  the  British  Crown  a 
few  years  ago. 

With  that  we  have  nothing  to  do,  of  course,  except 
that  it  is  an  indication  of  the  great  work  this  physician 
has  performed,  and  in  an  enervating  tropical  climate, 
that  it  should  have  attracted  attention  at  the  British 
court.  His  predecessor.  Dr.  Imray,  was  for  many  years 
a  friend  and  correspondent  of  that  famous  botanist.  Sir 
Joseph  Hooker,  and  he  has  followed  in  his  footsteps, 
having  not  only  a  perfect  acquaintance  with  the  West 
Indian  flora,  but  a  practical  knowledge  of  tropical  agri- 
culture, on  which  as  a  topic  he  has  written  an  authori- 
tative work  of  surpassing  value. 

Having  started  out  to  give  little  Roseau  a  first-class 
"  character,"  I  must  not  omit  mention  of  its  superlative 
situation,  at  the  foot  of  a  glorious  morne,  its  government 
house,  botanical  gardens,  and  experiment  station  (where 
so  much  has  been  done  toward  improving  tropical  agri- 


DOMINICA  333 

culture),  its  library,  and  its  picturesqueness.  Now  let 
us  hasten  to  the  woods  and  mountains ;  for  towns  are 
towns,  all  the  world  over,  attractive  according  to  the  man- 
ner in  which  man  has  fitted  them  to  their  environ- 
ments ;  while  the  hills  and  forests — are  they  not  of  God  ? 
For  the  blessed  privilege  of  living  many  months  in 
communion  with  nature  in  her  most  lovable  moods  and 
most  beautiful  garbs,  I  have  always  felt  grateful  to  my 
Creator,  who  directed  my  wandering  footsteps  toward  this 
island  of  Dominica. 

Through  my  friend  in  Roseau  I  secured  a  guide  to 
the  mountains  that  formed  the  central  system  of  Domin- 
ica's chain,  and  from  one  of  the  mountaineers,  when 
arrived  at  the  little  hamlet  in  the  forest  clearing,  I 
secured  a  cabin,  where  I  lived  for  several  weeks,  in  a 
sense  isolated  from  my  kind.  This  hamlet  was  called 
Laudat,  and  was  at  that  time  forest-surrounded,  within 
sight  of  the  sea,  but  hidden  from  the  distant  town,  and 
two  thousand  feet  above  the  Caribbean  at  its  level. 
Here,  let  me  remark,  instead  of  rising  to  eighty-five 
degrees,  as  Mr.  Trollope  suggested,  the  thermometer 
rarely  indicated  more  than  sixty-eight  or  seventy.  I 
know,  because  I  had  one  hanging  in  my  hut  for  months, 
and  frequently  referred  to  it. 

These  mountaineers  are  colored  people,  bronzed  as 
to  complexion,  and  very  much  mixed  up  as  to  ancestry, 
in  their  veins  the  blood  of  three  races  mingling — that 
of  the  French,  the  African,  and  the  Carib  Indian.  They 
speak  a  French  patois,  like  all  the  islanders  in  English 
Dominica  and  Saint  Lucia,  as  well  as  in  French  Mar- 
tinique and  Guadeloupe.  They  are  faithful,  honest, 
untiringly  zealous  in  serving,  and  as  woodsmen  are  un- 
surpassed,    The  embodiment  of  all  the  servingman's  vir- 


334        OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

tties  was  old  Jean  Baptiste,  of  whom  I  hired  the  cabin, 
and  who,  a  few  years  after,  lost  his  life  by  venturing  too 
near  that  devil's  caldron,  the  Boiling  Lake.  Zizi,  as  he 
was  called  at  home,  had  an  overwhelming  regard  for  the 
white  man — the  white  man  whom  he  could  respect — who, 
he  said,  was  next  to  the  Bon  Dieu.  *'  White  man  he 
next  to  God;  I  tank  ze  Bon  Dieu  eef  I  can  speks  ze 
Eengleesh." 

To  the  worthy  Zizi  I  was  indebted  for  my  first  taste 
of  iguana,  the  arboreal  lizard  which  looks  like  an  alligator 
with  a  serrated  back  and  whip-tail.  The  flesh  is  not 
always  good,  but  in  the  spring  of  the  year,  when  the 
iguana  comes  out  of  its  dens  and  feeds  on  grass  and 
leaves  of  trees,  it  is  savory,  tender,  white,  fit  for  any  table. 

Zizi  and  a  small  host  of  half-naked  urchins,  animated 
creatures,  yellow-bronze  in  hue,  were  my  guides  to 
haunts  of  bird  and  beast.  They  showed  me  where  the 
delicious  mountain  crabs  and  crayfish  lurked,  the 
quaint  "  trembleurs,"  or  birds  with  quivering  wings,  had 
their  nests;  the  '' siffleur  montagne,"  or  mountain 
whistler,  trilled  its  melodious  songs,  in  organ  notes; 
and  above  all,  where  the  brilliant  humming-birds  dis- 
ported, lighting  the  somber  forests  with  their  gem-like 
plumage. 

The  primeval  state  in  which  this  forest  wilderness  then 
existed  may  be  understood  when  I  state  that  I  secured 
here  six  or  eight  new  birds,  which  had  never  been  seen 
even  by  naturalists  before,  and  among  them  one  which 
had  the  reputation  of  being  a  "  jombie  "  bird  or  sort  of 
feathered  spirit.  It  was  also  known  as  the  soldi  coiichcr, 
the  "  sunset  bird,"  because  it  uttered  its  cry  only  as  the 
sun  went  down  at  night.  This  bird,  which  I  captured 
by  the  aid  of  my  boys  (who  were  in  a  state  of  trepida- 


The  Boiling  Lake  of  Dominica 


DOMINICA  335 

tion  when  I  did  it,  fearing  ghostly  vengeance),  was 
named  after  me,  the  Myiarchus  Obcri,  making  the  second 
species  to  which  my  name  was  applied,  in  "  hog  Latin," 
by  the  ornithologists  at  Washington,  when  it  was  sent 
home  to  them  for  identification. 

The  discoverer  of  the  bird  also  received  a  valued 
tribute  from  a  poetess  whose  sweet  voice  is  nov/  hushed 
forever:  Lucy  Larcom,  a  close  friend  of  John  G. 
Whittier,  and  a  writer  of  distinction.  Meeting  her  soon 
after  returning  from  my  first  voyage  to  the  Antilles, 
and  narrating  to  her  the  story  of  the  Sunset  Bird 
(doubtless  with  many  embellishments,  to  suit  the  poet's 
fancy),  she  was  captivated  with  the  subject  and  wrote  a 
poem  about  it.*  Shortly  after,  I  remember,  we  both  rode 
over  from  my  home  to  Danvers,  where  Mr.  Whittier  then 
resided  most  of  the  time,  and  Miss  Larcom  mentioned 
the  theme  to  him.  After  she  had  concluded,  the  dear 
old  Quaker  poet  fell  into  a  revery,  from  which  soon 
awaking  he  said  earnestly:  "  Does  thee  know,  Lucy,  that 
strikes  me  as  a  good  subject  for  a  poem?  " 

Miss  Larcom  laughed  merrily  as  she  replied,  shaking 
her  finger  at  him  playfully:  *'  Oh,  you  can't  have  that, 
for  I've  already  written  about  it!  " 

I  fancied  that  Mr.  Whittier  looked  disappointed,  but 
he,  too,  laughed  as  he  rejoined  in  the  same  vein:  "Ah, 
Lucy,  thee  is  always  getting  ahead  of  me!  " 

But,  returning  to  our  island,  after  this  digression  into 
which  I  was  led  by  reminiscence:  there  is  still  another 
reason  why  Dominica  should  be  regarded  as  almost  a 
terra    incognita     until     within    a    comparatively    recent 

*  "  The  Sunset  Bird  of  Dominica,"  in  "  Wild  Roses  of  Cape 
Ann,"  Boston,  1881. 


33^        OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

period.  It  is  found  in  the  existence  within  its  sierras 
of  a  gigantic  geyser,  which  had  blown  out  steam  and 
water,  rumbled  and  roared,  in  uninvaded  solitude  for 
ages,  perhaps,  undiscovered  and  unknown  until  the  last 
quarter  of  the  last  century  had  nearly  arrived.  It  seems 
incredible  that  in  an  island  with  scarce  one  hundred  miles 
of  coast  line,  and  containing  only  three  hundred  square 
miles,  there  could  exist  not  only  a  lake  of  boiling  water, 
detonating  frequently  with  loud  reports,  but  a  large  area 
of  volcanic  activity,  without  any  human  being  being 
aware  of  the  fact  through  several  centuries. 

Moreover,  I  trust  I  may  be  pardoned  for  remarking, 
I  was  the  first  American  to  look  upon  it,  and  the  first 
of  any  nationality  to  take  a  photograph  of  Dominica's 
since-famous  Boiling  Lake.  An  engraving  from  this 
photograph  was  published  in  the  London  Graphic  of 
April  19,  1879,  the  first,  I  believe,  to  appear.  Through- 
out the  islands  (I  may  add)  at  the  time  I  carried  a  "  wet- 
plate  "  photographic  outfit,  by  means  of  which  I  secured 
the  originals  of  the  illustrations  that  appeared  in  my 
first  book,  before  the  era  of  "  process  pictures  "  and  di- 
rect reproductions. 

One  of  the  Laudat  people  had  been  the  first  guide  to 
the  Boiling  Lake,  when  it  was  discovered  by  Dr. 
Nicholls,  in  1875,  but  it  was  first  sought  by  a  local 
magistrate,  Mr.  Edmund  Watt,  who  was  lost  in  the 
forest  the  year  before,  in  an  attempt  at  exploring  the 
mysterious  region.  Mr.  Watt  came  near  losing  his  life, 
and  he  also  came  near  discovering  the  lake;  but  failed 
through  the  defection  of  his  men,  who  left  him  alone 
in  the  trackless  forest.  Then,  as  one  of  my  boys  nar- 
rated to  me:  '' M'sieu  Watt  he  walk,  walk,  walk,  pour 
.ree  day;  he  lose  hees  clo's,  bees  pants  cut  off;  he  make 


DOMINICA  337 

nozing  pottr  manger  but  root ;  he  have  no  knife,  no 
nozing ;  hees  guide  was  town  neegah ;  zey  was  town 
neegah,  sah,  and  leab  him  and  loss  him.  Bien,  he  come 
to  black  man's  ajoupa  in  wood,  an'  ze  black  man  sink 
he  jomhie  an'  he  run ;  when  he  come  back  wiz  some 
more  men  for  look  for  jomhie  M'sieu  Watt  he  make 
coople  of  sign — for  he  have  loss  hees  voice  and  was  not 
to  spek — an'  zey  deescovair  heem." 

It  was  none  too  soon,  either,  that  this  first  seeker  for 
the  lake  was  rescued,  for  he  was  nearly  gone.  He  had 
the  pleasure  the  next  year,  however,  of  setting  eyes  on 
the  phenomenon,  as  one  of  the  party  led  by  Dr.  Nicholls. 

When  my  friend  Zizi  finally  announced  that  "  to-mor- 
row make  weddah  "  for  the  trip  to  the  Lake,  I  had  been 
waiting  for  that  same  weather  to  "  make  "  for  quite  two 
weeks ;  so  there  was  no  delay  in  starting  out.  Four 
Laudat  boys,  two  sons  and  two  nephews  of  Zizi,  went 
with  me  as  guides  and  porters,  two  of  them  being  neces- 
sary to  carry  the  photographic  outfit,  consisting  of  dark- 
tent,  chemicals,  and  camera.  Each  of  them  also  carried 
a  gun,  as  well  as  a  rhachete  at  his  side,  and  the  muzzles 
of  the  muskets  were  constantly,  though  not  intentionally, 
pointed  at  my  head,  thus  adding  zest  to  the  occasion 
throughout  the  trip.  And  it  was  a  most  wonderful 
journey,  consuming  two  days  and  a  night,  even  starting, 
as  we  did,  from  the  mountain  hamlet  well  on  the  way  to 
the  lake.  Plunging  at  once  into  the  forest,  I  found 
myself  in  the  home  of  magnificent  tree-ferns,  which  is 
between  fifteen  hundred  and  three  thousand  feet  above 
the  sea.  On  the  way  up  to  the  hamlet  from  Roseau  one 
may  see  tree-ferns  occasionally ;  but  not  such  rare  speci- 
mens as  the  great  forest  contains.  These  and  the  moun- 
tain palms  accompanied  us  nearly  all  the  way,  until  near 


338        OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

the  pctit^  soufrierc,  or  little  sulphur  valley,  was 
approached;  as  also  the '"  mountain  whistlers,"  gaudy 
insects,  and  rare  types  of  humming-birds.  It  was  late 
in  the  afternoon  that  we  reached  the  sotifriere  region, 
where  all  vegetation  had  been  blasted  by  the  sulphur 
fumes,  and  the  stench  from  sulphureted  hydrogen  was 
nearly  overpowering.  The  silver  coins  in  my  pocket  and 
the  brass  mountings  of  my  camera  were  soon  discolored 
to  a  blue-black  hue  by  the  fumes;  for  we  were  now  amidst 
several  sulphur  streams,  and  clouds  of  vapor  drifted  con- 
tinually across  the  valley. 

Referring  to  my  notes,  I  find  that  the  heat  was  made 
ten-fold  oppressive  by  the  moisture-laden  atmosphere. 
We  descended  between  huge  boulders  and  dead 
blanched  trees  prostrate  on  the  ground  to  a  stream  of 
marvelous  beauty,  and  entered  a  ravine  through  which 
flowed  other  streams  from  above,  their  currents  now 
minghng,  hot  and  cold  together,  where  the  scene  changed 
as  if  by  enchantment.  Everywhere  plashed  most  mu- 
sical cascades,  and  from  every  side  came  pouring  in 
rippling  rivulets,  some  cold  and  sparkling,  others  boiling 
hot,  with  wreaths  of  steam  above  them  in  the  air.  Along 
their  banks  were  all  sorts  of  tropical  plants,  such  as  tree- 
ferns,  wild-plantains,  orchids,  and  air-plants,  the  last 
hanging  in  mid-air  to  lianes  and  lialines  which  formed  a 
perfect  network  alongside  and  across  the  streams.  On 
the  sloping  hillside  here  my  boys  chose  a  spot  for  a  camp, 
and  two  of  them  stayed  to  make  an  ajoupa,  while  the 
other  two  went  with  me  to  the  lake. 

In  the  bottom  of  a  vast  bowl,  with  walls  a  hundred  feet 
in  height  around  it,  I  finally  found  the  object  I  had 
come  so  far  to  see — the  Boiling  Lake  of  Dominica.  But, 
though  all  other  visitors  had  seen  it  in  a  state  of  violent 


DOMINICA  339 

ebullition,  when  I  first  looked  upon  it  there  was  hardly 
a  ripple  on  the  surface.  '  There  was  the  geyser's  token, 
the  swelling  ripple  in  the  center;  but  otherwise  it  was 
quiescent.  That  was  fortunate,  as  I  viewed  it,  for  other- 
wise I  could  not  have  taken  the  photograph,  which  I 
obtained  by  scrambling  down  the  bed  of  a  dried-up  river 
and  pitching  my  camera  at  the  lake  marge,  just  as  the 
sun's  last  rays  gilded  the  mountains  and  hill-crests 
beyond  the  crater. 

When  the  lake  had  quieted  down  nobody  could  tell,  of 
course,  for  visitors  to  the  region  were  not  frequent  those 
days ;  but  I  was  the  first  to  secure  an  unobstructed  view 
of  its  surface  without  intervening  clouds  of  steam,  or  to 
listen  at  the  solfataras  without  having  the  ears  assailed 
by  violent  detonations. 

Opposite  the  spot  where  I  had  set  my  camera  was  a 
great  gap  in  the  inclosing  wall,  through  which  the  over- 
flow from  the  lake  had  generally  poured  forth  in  a  tor- 
rent of  sulphur  water  that  descended  to  the  coast. 
Through  this  aperture,  which  was  about  fifty  feet  across, 
I  could  look  off,  across  and  over  verdant  mountains, 
southerly  to  the  isle  of  Martinique,  gleaming  in  the  mist 
and  waning  sunlight  twenty  miles  away.  There  is  situ- 
ated grim  old  Mont  Pelee,  which,  in  May,  1902,  over- 
whelmed Saint  Pierre  and  destroyed  so  many  thousand 
people.  During  that  eruption  and  for  some  time  after 
it  was  feared  that  the  Boiling  Lake,  which  is  a  vent  or 
safety-valve  for  the  internal  volcanic  forces,  would 
explode  and  devastate  Martinique's  sister  island  of 
Dominica;  but  on  the  whole  it  behaved  very  well  and 
proved  an  agreeable  disappointment.  It  roared  and 
fretted,  now  and  then,  and  when  the  island  was  envel- 
oped in  smoke  from  neighboring  Pelee  and  the  lake  sud- 


340       OUR  WEST  INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

denly  subsided,  many  of  the  natives  feared  an  overflow 
to  the  valleys  below ;  but  nothing  of  the  sort  happened, 
and  to-day  (or  by  last  accounts)  the  Boiling  Lake  pre- 
sents no  new  or  startling  feature. 

There  have  been  victims  of  its  insidious  gases,  how- 
ever— two  men,  one  a  young  Englishman,  Wilfred  Clive, 
a  descendant  of  the  celebrated  Lord  Clive,  and  the  other 
his  guide.  The  accident  happened  in  December,  1901, 
five  months  previous  to  the  eruptions  of  Pelee  in  Mar- 
tinique and  the  Saint  Vincent  Soufriere.  Mr.  Clive  had 
reached  the  lake  and  was  setting  his  camera  in  position 
near  or  at  the  spot  I  had  selected  years  before,  when  one 
of  his  two  guides,  who  was  sitting  on  a  rock  near  a 
stream,  was  overcome  by  lethal  gases  and  toppled  over 
into  the  water.  The  other  guide  was  also  affected ;  but 
when  young  Clive  discovered  the  first  in  an  apparently, 
dying  state  he  immediately  dispatched  the  second  to 
Laudat  for  assistance.  The  insidious  nature  of  the 
deadly  gases  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  Mr. 
Clive  was  himself  stricken  as  he  was  ministering  to  his 
guide.  He  should  have  been  on  his  guard ;  but  when 
the  relieving  party  arrived  from  Laudat,  many  hours 
after,  they  found  both  men  dead,  the  guide  propped 
against  a  boulder,  and  Mr.  Clive  in  a  recumbent  position. 

The  rescue  party  arrived  that  night,  but  the  sulphu- 
reted  hydrogen  was  so  strong  in  the  ravine  where  the 
corpses  lay  that  two  days  passed  before  they  could  get 
them  out.  During  two  long  days  and  terrible  nights 
they  maintained  their  grewsome  death-watch  on  or  near 
the  hillside  where,  twenty-four  years  before,  my  boys  had 
pitched  my  camp  and  built  our  ajoupa.  Through  the 
wild  forests  which  we  had  traversed  so  light-heartedly, 
over  the  rough  trail  beneath  the  giant  trees,  amid  the  dense, 


DOMINICA  341 

tropic  growth,  the  relief  party  made  their  return  march 
by  night,  Hghted  by  torches  of  gum  wood,  and  bearing 
their  ghastly  burdens  in  hammocks  between  them.  Years 
before  a  similar  party  had  borne  to  Laudat  poor  old  Zizi, 
my  guide  and  friend,  another"  victim  of  the  Lake,  who 
was  scalded  to  death  in  its  waters. 

The  temperature  of  the  water  when  I  was  there,  in 
1877,  was  under  100  degrees ;  but  both  previous  and  later 
investigators  have  found  it  nearly  200,  or  very  near  the 
boiling-point,  at  an  elevation  of  two  thousand  feet  and 
more  above  the  sea.  Within  the  volcanic  area,  the 
Soufriere  region,  there  are  many  hot  springs,  and  in  one 
of  them,  on  the  morning  succeeding  to  our  night  in  camp,, 
my  guides  cooked  our  breakfast,  then  spread  the  repast 
on  the  broad  leaves  of  the  wild  plantain,  and  we  feasted 
merrily  (I  find  recorded  in  my  journal),  though  half- 
strangled  by  the  sulphur  fumes. 


CHAPTER  XXII 
THE  LAST  OF  THE  WEST  INDIANS 

Where  the  last  of  the  West  Indians  are  to  be  found  —  Caribs, 
or  Cannibals,  discovered  by  Columbus,  in  1493  —  My  first 
acquaintance  with  those  of  Dominica --- The  Carib  reserva- 
tion—  History  of  the  aborigines  in  epitome  —  Proofs  that 
the  Caribs  were  anthropophagi  —  Their  defensive  weapons 
—  The  people  described  by  a  writer  of  the  seventeenth 
century  —  Their  beliefs  in  a  God  and  the  soul  —  The  late 
Doctor  Brinton's  theory  of  their  origin  —  Probably  derived 
from  Orinoco  region  of  South  America  —  If  we  could 
summon  their  shades  back  to  earth?  —  Only  ritual  cannibals 
at  the  most  —  Why  the  Caribs  rarely  ate  the  Christians  — 
The  writer's  quarters  in  Carib  country  —  Madame  Jo  and 
her  shock-headed  children  —  A  solitary  life  in  pursuit  of 
birds  —  Favored  guest  of  hospitable  natives  —  Who  had 
more  virtues  than  vices  —  How  I  became  godfather  to  a 
descendant  of  cannibals  —  A  feast  for  the  quondam  hunter 
of  birds  —  The  responsibilities  of  a  godfather  —  What  Time 
had  done  to  Madame  John  —  Old  and  decrepit  at  forty  — 
Time  and  rum  too  much  for  Meyong  —  My  rediscovered 
relatives  —  The  Carib  tongue  spoken  only  by  a  few  old 
Indians  —  Where  French  has  supplanted  both  Carib  and 
English. 

THE  last  of  tke  aboriginal  West  Indians,  de- 
scendants of  the  people  found  here  by  Colum- 
bus more  than  four  hundred  years  ago,  are  to 
be  found  only  in  the  islands  of  Dominica  and  Saint 
Vincent,  those  comparatively  obscure  members  of  the 
Antillean  chain.  Very  few  remain  in  the  latter  island, 
having  been   practically   exterminated   by   the   outburst 

342 


THE  LAST  OF  THE  WEST   INDIANS    343 

of  the  Soufriere ;  but  there  are  between  two  and  three 
hundred  in  Dominica.  They  are  the  last  remains  of  the 
Caribs,  Indians  discovered  in  1493  ^^^^  by  Cokimbus  de- 
nominated cannibals  after  he  had  found  what  he  claimed 
was  evidence  of  their  man-eating  propensities,  in  the 
island  of  Guadeloupe. 

More  than  a  month  was  spent  by  me  in  the  forests 
of  Dominica  before  I  ventured  over  to  the  Atlantic  coast 
of  the  island  where  the  Caribs  lived.  I  had  heard  of 
them,  and  from  them,  for  now  and  then  some  of  the 
Indians  made  the  journey  across  the  mountains  from  the 
windward  to  the  leeward  coast,  and  in  doing  so  always 
diverged  from  the  trail  at  Laudat  and  passed  some  time 
with  their  friends  in  that  hamlet.  While  I  was  photo- 
graphing the  beautiful  Mountain  Lake,  which  fills  with 
its  pure  cold  water  one  of  the  four  dead  craters  existing 
in  Dominica,  and  is  2200  feet  above  the  sea,  I  was  sur- 
prised by  the  approach  of  a  stalwart,  buxom  girl  of 
twenty  years  or  so,  who  swung  along  the  trail  with  long 
strides,  in  company  with  an  older  woman. 

".Look,  look,  M'sieu,"  exclaimed  my  assistant,  point- 
ing at  the  girl,  "  that  Indian,  one  of  the  Charaibes !  '^ 

She  had  just  passed  by  us,  but  hearing  this  exclama- 
tion turned,  and  with  a  broad  smile  on  her  bronzed; 
chubby  face  said  in  patois:  "  Oiii,  moi  Charaibe;  moi 
faiyn,  aiissi" — '*Me  Carib;  me  hungry,  also."  This  latter 
remark  was  probably  intended  to  suggest  an  invitation  to 
join  in  the  repast  which  my  boy  had  spread  within  the 
cave  in  the  clay-bank  opposite  the  lake  and  at  the  side 
of  the  trail.  At  any  rate,  the  girl  and  her  companion 
were  invited,  and  they  both  returned  and  sat  down,  with- 
out any  ado  whatever  at  the  lack  of  formal  introduc- 
tions.    They  enjoyed  immensely  the  sardines  and  pate  de 


344        OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

foic  gras,  the  British  beer  and  Danish  butter  and  the 
American  welcome  they  received,  which  were  doubtless 
novelties  in  their  experience,  and  after  an  hour  or  so 
departed  with  the  assurance  that  if  I  would  visit  Carib 
country  they  would  endeavor  to  requite  my  hospitality. 

After  dispatching  my  collections  of  rare  birds  to  the 
coast,  thence  to  be  shipped  to  the  States  by  sailing  vessel, 
I  packed  up  my  belongings  at  Laudat,  and  in  company 
with  two  of  my  boys  and  two  strapping  girls,  who  car- 
ried my  luggage  on  their  heads,  started  for  the  so-called 
Carib  country.  There  are  few  roads  of  any .  sort  in 
Dominica  at  the  present  time,  and  there  were  none  at  all 
in  the  days  I  write  of,  the  only  trail  being  a  foot-path  up 
the  mountains  and  down  the  vales,  frequently  interrupted 
by  rivers  and  at  times  skirting  the  brinks  of  precipices. 
Two  days  it  took  me  to  perform  the  trip,  but  it  might 
have  been  done  in  shorter  time,  perhaps,  if  the  people  by 
the  way  had  been  less  inclined  to  hospitality.  Most  of 
the  Indians  had  heard  of  the  white  man  who  had  cut 
loose  from  civilization  and  became  as  one  of  them  with 
the  mountaineers,  and  so  they  were  well  inclined  toward 
me  in  advance  of  my  coming.  It  was  with  many  a  tarry 
by  the  way,  and  many  a  halt  at  huts  of  smiling  natives, 
that  I  pursued  the  journey  with  my  corps  of  attendants, 
all  of  them  bearing  big  burdens  on  their  heads. 

I  found  my  resting-place  at  last,  finally  reaching  the 
Carib  reservation,  which  extends  from  the  River  Mahoe 
to  the  River  Ecr^isse,  three  miles  or  more  along  the 
Atlantic  coast,  and  away  back  into  the  mountains  as 
many  miles  as  the  people  chose  to  make  their  provision 
grounds. 

It  has  been  often  stated  that  the  people  of  the  United 
States,  when  our  pioneers  came  into  contact  with  the 


THE  LAST  OF  THE  WEST   INDIANS    345 

Indians  of  the  frontier,  took  all  the  good  lands  for  them- 
selves and  gave  the  red  men  the  remainder.  How  false 
this  is  we  who  have  been  in  the  Indian  Territory  and  seen 
the  accumulated  wealth  of  the  noble  red  men  there  can 
aver ;  but  whether  this  be  so  or  not,  in  the  Lesser  Antilles 
the  white  men  practiced  this  policy  centuries  ago.  First 
the  Spaniards,  in  Cuba,  Jamaica,  Haiti,  and  Puerto  Rico ; 
then  the  French  and  English,  in  the  southern  or  volcanic 
islands  of  the  Lesser  Antilles. 

At  all  events,  the  Indians  of  the  Greater  Antilles  were 
long  ago  exterminated,  after  first  being  deprived  of  their 
lands,  and  only  a  miserable  remnant  of  the  Caribs-  of  the 
lesser  islands  remains  in  existence  to-day. 

The  Caribbeans,  says  an  author  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  are  a  handsome,  well-shaped  people,  of  a  smil- 
ing countenance,  middle  stature,  having  broad  shoulders 
and  large  hips,  and  most  of  them  in  good  condition.  The 
description  he  gives  of  the  Caribs  will  apply  to-day, 
for  they  have  changed  but  little,  except  through  intermix- 
ture with  the  negroes  and  colored  people  during  the  past 
200  years.  Their  mouths  are  not  over  large,  he  says, 
and  their  teeth  are  perfectly  white  and  close.  Their 
complexion  is  of  an  olive  color,  naturally;  their  fore- 
heads and  noses  are  flat,  not  naturally,  but  by  artifice 
(that  is,  artificially  flattened),  "for  their  mothers  crush 
them  down  at  their  birth,  as  also  during  the  time  they 
suckle  them,  imagining  it  a  kind  of  beauty  or  perfec- 
tion." 

"  They  believe  in  evil  spirits  and  seek  to  propitiate 
them  by  presents  of  game,  fruits,  etc.  They  believe  that 
they  have  as  many  souls  as  they  feel  beatings  of  the 
arteries  in  their  bodies,  besides  the  principal  one  which 
is  in  the  heart  and  goes  to  heaven  with  its  god,  who 


346        OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

carries  it  thither  to  live  with  other  gods ;  and  they 
imagine  that  they  live  the  same  life  that  man  lives  here 
below.  For  they  do  not  rtiink  the  soul  to  be  so  far  imma- 
terial as  to  be  invisible,  but  they  affirm  it  to  be  subtle  and 
of  thin  substance,  as  a  purified  body,  and  they  use  but  the 
same  word  to  signify  heart  and  soul." 

If  we  could  but  summon  the  shades  of  their  cannibal 
ancestors  before  us  it  is  probable  that  (shades,  ghosts, 
apparitions,  spooks,  jombies,  being  supposed  to  tell  the 
truth)  they  might  plead  guilty  to  having  been  anthro- 
pophagi ;  but  only  in  the  "  religious  "  sense.  Like  the 
ancient  Aztecs  (who,  though  they  had  sacrificed  thou- 
sands of  their  enemies  before  grim  Huitzilopochtli  on 
their  temple-pyramid  and  had  partaken  of  their  flesh, 
did  not  resort  to  cannibalism  when  pressed  by  famine  at 
the  siege  of  Mexico),  the  Caribs  sometimes  ate  human 
flesh  at  their  ceremonials.  But  it  was  merely  a  matter  of 
taste,  so  to  speak.  If  an  enemy  fought  well  and  dis- 
played unusual  valor,  they  saved  his  arms,  legs,  and  other 
portions  as  tidbits,  by  "  boucanning  "  them  over  a  slow 
fire,  for  their  religious  banquets. 

Later  on,  after  they  had  well-nigh  exterminated  the 
Arawaks  of  the  more  northern  West  Indies,  they  applied 
the  same  process  to  the  invading  Christians.  But  never 
to  any  great  extent,  because,  as  one  of  the  Carib  chief- 
tains is  said  to  have  naively  explained :  *'  The  Spaniards 
and  Frenchmen  tasted  of  garlic,  and  the  Englishmen 
were  too  strong  of  tobacco !  "  So  the  Christians  "  saved 
their  bacon  " ;  though  they  rarely  saved  their  lives  when, 
through  the  fortunes  of  war,  they  were  taken  prisoners  by 
the  Caribs. 

In  the  process  of  time,  and  through  the  drastic  methods 
of   Spanish   and   English   "  civilization,"   as   the   Caribs 


THE   LAST   OF   THE   WEST   INDIANS    347 

became  decimated  they  lost  their  warUke  nature,  as  well 
as  their  desire  for  tasting  human  flesh ;  and  when,  nearly 
400  years  after  their  discovery  by  white  men,  I  found  my 
way  to  their  settlement,  on  the  windward  side  of  Domin- 
ica, less  than  300  altogether,  and  hardly  more  than  a 
dozen  of  pure  blood,  remained  alive. 

As  a  naturalist,  interested  mainly  in  birds  and  inci- 
dentally in  anthropology,  I  became  domiciled  in  their 
midst  at  that  time,  and  as  the  only  white  man  resident  in 
their  settlement  I  was  the  recipient  of  overwhelming 
attention.  The  palm-thatched  hut  which  they  had  built 
for  the  priest  to  occupy  in  his  semi-annual  visits  was 
assigned  me,  and  the  middle-aged  woman  who  generally 
ministered  to  the  holy  man's  creature  comforts,  by  cook- 
ing the  food  furnished  by  his  parishioners,  was  charged 
with  the  same  duties  in  behalf  of  the  white  hunter  from 
the  United  States. 

This  woman,  with  her  husband  and  a  family  of  black- 
eyed,  shock-headed  children,  occupied  a  little  hut  on  a 
promontory  overlooking  the  boisterous  Atlantic,  about 
a  mile  distant  from  the  priest's  house,  which,  having 
another  within  gunshot,  was  considered  to  be  in  the  heart 
of  the  settlement. 

And  yet  it  was  lonely,  as  I  remember,  when,  having 
attended  to  her  daily  duties,  ''  Madame  Jo  "  cleared  away 
the  table,  fastened  up  the  cookhouse  adjacent  to  the  hut, 
and  left  me  alone,  to  listen  over  night  to  the  soughing  of 
the  ever-blowing  tradewind  and  the  monotonous  beat  of 
the  fierce  waves  upon  the  rocks.  But  I  was  then  young, 
active,  and  industrious,  every  morning  rising  at  day- 
break to  range  the  forest  all  the  forenoon  for  birds,  after 
a  sunrise  dip  in  the  river;  and  so  busy  during  the  after- 
noon writing  up  notes  and  preparing  my  *'  specimens," 


348       OUR  WEST  INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

that  soon  after  dusk  and  dinner  I  became  oblivious  to  the 
sohtary  nature  of  my  surroundings. 

My  guide  and  companion  was  an  Indian  lad  called 
Meyong  (contraction  of  Simeon),  who  knew  all  the 
haunts  of  bird  and  beast  on  shore  and  in  the  mountain 
forests.  As  the  smoke  arose  from  the  little  shack  in 
which  Madame  Jo  prepared  my  morning  coffee,  Meyong 
sauntered  up  in  time  to  make  way  with  the  portion  left 
for  him,  and  then  led  me  away  to  the  scene  of  the  day's 
investigations — it  might  be  for  iguanas  and  agoutis, 
among  the  wild  guavas  of  a  deserted  plantation,  or  yet, 
farther  afield,  for  wild  parrots  and  great  blue-headed 
pigeons ;  but  we  never  returned  empty-handed  to  the  hut, 
nor  without  having  tramped  for  hours  in  the  sweltering 
atmosphere  of  the  tropics. 

Now  and  again  we  had  Madame  Jo  put  up  a  larger 
portion  of  food  than  usual,  and  then  wandered  for  days 
and  nights  in  the  mountains,  searching  for  the  great 
'*  imperial  "  parrot  (the  Chrysotis  aiigusta)  and  that  some- 
what mythical  creature,  the  Diahlotin,  or  "  Devil  Bird." 
At  such  times  we  were  accompanied  by  Meyong's  inti- 
mate friend,  Coryet,  who  carried  the  culinary  implements 
and  made  the  ajoupa  in  which  we  slept  at  night.  And  it 
was  while  I  reclined  upon  the  springy  bed  of  palm  leaves, 
beneath  the  lean-to,  in  the  light  of  a  fragrant  fire  of  gum- 
wood,  with  pencil  and  note-book  in  hand,  that  my  Carib 
friends  repeated  to  me  tales  of  the  **  loup-garous,"  or 
were-wolves,  and  strange  Indian  traditions. 

Happier  days  and  nights  have  never  fallen  to  my  lot 
than  those  I  then  experienced  in  the  *'  high-woods  "  of 
that  tropical  island  in  the  Caribbean  Sea.  Ardent  and 
enthusiastic,  I  entered  with  eagerness  into  the  life  of  my 
Indian  companions,  hesitated  at  no  venture  they  pro- 


THE   LAST   OF   THE   WEST   INDIANS    349 

posed,  and  endured  gladly  all  the  hardships  incidental  to 
that  wild  existence.  Charmed  by  its  romanticism,  fasci- 
nated by  its  novelty,  I  possibly  idealized  the  simple  folk 
among-  whom  I  lived,  and  this  in  turn  may  account  for 
the  manner  in  which  they  served  me,  which  almost 
verged  upon  actual  worship. 

Aside  from  the  fact  that  the  Caribs  felt  in  honor  bound 
to  supply  the  stranger  in  their  midst  with  all  their  lands 
afforded,  they  liked  me  because  I  became  for  the  time  as 
good  an  aboriginal  as  any  of  my  men,  hunted  and  fished 
with  them,  and  took  the  keenest  interest  in  their  welfare. 
And,  indeed,  they  were  a  lovable  people,  honest,  affec- 
tionate, true  to  each  other,  and  hospitable.  They  had 
vices,  alas!  but  they  were  those  begotten  of  a  tropical 
climate,  and  an  imperception  of  moral  obligations ; 
negative,  not  positive ;   yet  inimical  to  their  well  being. 

In  short,  they  had  received  me  as  one  of  themselves, 
and  when,  just  before  the  time  arrived  for  my  departure, 
after  two  months  in  the  Carib  hamlet,  the  husband  of 
Madame  Jo  desired  me  to  stand  godfather  for  a  female 
child,  which  she  had  recently  presented  to  her  liege  lord, 
there  could  be  but  one  answer  to  this  request.  The  cere- 
mony took  place  in  the  little  chapel  at  Saint  Marie,  and 
having  paid  the  customary  fee  exacted  from  the  sponsor 
for  a  new-born  child  on  such  an  occasion,  I  took  leave  of 
the  assembled  Caribs,  and  departed  for  other  isles,  amid 
a  chorus  of  lamentations. 

It  is  rarely  that  civilized  man,  however  savage  his  fore- 
bears may  have  been  in  the  distant  past,  suffers  a  recru- 
descence of  barbaric  proclivities,  and  becomes  atavic. 
With  most  of  us,  the  liking  for  a  semi-civilized  state  of 
existence  is  but  a  phase,  which  we  outlive,  and  which 
passes  away  with  the  bounding  pulse   and   headstrong 


350       OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

ambitions  of  youth.  And  so  in  my  case ;  though  I  spent 
several  years  in  seeking  adventure  of  some  sort,  chiefly 
in  roaming  tropical  forests  in  quest  of  rare  birds,  the  time 
came  when  I  naturally  settled  down  to  soberer  pur- 
suits. 

Now  and  again,  as  time  rolled  on,  came  a  word  of 
greeting  or  a  fragmentary  message  from  my  old  friends 
of  the  forest  life ;  but  fifteen  years  elapsed  before  the 
opportunity  offered  for  revisiting  the  scenes  of  my  early 
exploits.  When  it  came  I  seized  it  eagerly,  and  with 
what  emotions  I  once  more  gazed  upon  familiar  scenes 
of  that  long-past  period,  when  I  had  roamed  the  woods 
and  gleaned  the  streams  for  prey,  may  perhaps  be  imag- 
ined. My  first  disagreeable  shock  was  experienced  at 
the  mountain  hamlet  where  I  had  made  my  first  camp, 
when  I  was  told  that  my  good  old  guide,  Zizi,  had  been 
scalded  to  death  in  the  Boiling  Lake. 

I  also  learned,  at  this  hamlet  of  Laudat  on  the  Carib- 
bean side  of  the  island,  that  the  residents  of  the  ''  Carib 
country,"  or  the  windward  side,  had  heard  of  my  arrival 
and  had  planned  a  royal  reception  for  "  M'sieu  Fred," 
the  quondam  hunter  of  birds.  At  the  same  time  I  was 
reminded  of  the  responsibilities  I  had  once  assumed  in 
standing  sponsor  for  Madame  Jo's  child,  by  a  letter  from 
my  commere,  which  also  told  me  that  her  prsenomen  was 
not  "  Jo  "  at  all,  but  Marie  Antoinette.  At  all  events, 
she  was,  and  always  would  be,  my  ''  commere,"  or  god- 
mother, and  equally  I  was,  and  always  would  continue  to 
be,  whether  I  liked  it  or  not,  her  compere. 

After  a  two  days'  journey  on  horseback,  over  the 
mountain  backbone  of  Dominica  and  down  its  windward 
coast,  I  at  last  reached  the  vale  of  Saint  Marie,  its  beauti- 
ful prospect  before  me  and  the  sounding  sea  in  my  ears. 


THE   LAST   OF   THE   WEST   INDIANS    351 

The  little  hamlet  of  three  huts  seemed  as  lone  and  world- 
forsaken  as  when  I  had  left  it  fifteen  years  before.  As 
I  forded  the  stream  that  ran  in  front  of  the  hut  out  burst 
a  little  old  Carib  woman,  faded  and  wrinkled.  The  name 
she  gave  me,  "Madame  John,"  brought  no  trace  of  recol- 
lection, but  when  she  added :  "  I  used  to  tell  you  old 
Indian  words,  'member?"  I  recalled  then  Evangelina,  the 
pretty  maiden  who  could  speak  both  French  and  English 
and  who  assisted  me  in  making  a  Carib  vocabulary.  But 
she  was  such  a  shapely,  graceful  girl ;  and  this  woman — 
why,  she  was  already  old,  decrepit ! 

And  then  Meyong,  who  came  limping  down  the  path 
from  his  hut  to  meet  me ;  Meyong,  who  was  a  frisky  boy 
when  he  led  me  to  the  haunts  of  pigeon  and  parrot,  was 
now  the  staid  and  sober  head  of  a  family  containing  seven 
"  olive  branches."  It  was  high  time,  his  neighbors  told  me, 
for  if  he  had  not  developed  a  desire  for  rum  distilled  from 
sugar-cane  he  would  not  have  lost  all  the  toes  of  one  foot, 
which  he  had  inadvertently  chopped  off  while  under  the 
influence  of  drink. 

These  two,  Madame  John  and  Meyong,  had  scarcely 
installed  me  in  the  priest's  house,  with  its  two  diminutive 
rooms  and  roof  of  thatch,  before  I  was  greeted  by  my 
commere,  who  had  walked  two  miles  in  the  blazing  sun 
to  meet  me. 

"At  last !  at  last !"  she  exclaimed,  falling  upon  my  neck 
and  weeping  tears  of  joy.  Then,  having  plentifully  be- 
dewed my  shoulders,  she  pointed  to  a  comely  maiden 
standing  near  and  said :  "  Look,  Compe,  look  you  god- 
child !  Come,  child,  come  kiss  your  dear  godpapa,  who 
come  such  long,  long  way  to  see  you." 

The  maiden  shyly  advanced,  and,  after  imprinting  a 
chaste  salute  on  my  cheek,  placed  her  little  brown  fingers 


352        OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

nervously  in  mine,  the  while  regarding  me  with  frank, 
wide-open  eyes. 

And  this  was  my  Carib  godchild,  whom  I  had  not  seen 
for  fifteen  years;  this  pretty,  bronze-tinted  girl,  with 
great  black  eyes,  red  rounded  cheeks,  and  supple  figure 
already  with  the  promise  of  womanhood.  Old  Time,  the 
indefatigable,  had  labored  hard  since  I  had  left  this  ham- 
let, though  but  for  these  human  documents  I,  myself, 
should  hardly  have  known  the  years  had  passed. 

And  as  if  to  support  the  illusion,  there  came  Evan- 
gelina's  sister,  the  very  image  of  what  Evangelina  was 
when  I  used  to  know  her — sweet  seventeen,  with  arched 
pouting  lips,  merry  eyes,  lissome  shape  in  gaudy  calico, 
ready  to  sing  for  me  and  to  tell  me  the  Indian  traditions. 
When  I  went  next  morning  down  to  the  river  that  flowed 
into  the  sea,  to  the  wave-worn  hollow  in  the  great  black 
rock,  erstwhile  my  favorite  bathing  place,  a  half -nude 
Indian  boy,  a  miniature  of  Meyong  in  golden  bronze,  fol- 
lowed after  with  a  towel  and  sat  while  I  bathed,  as  his 
father  used  to  do  on  similar  occasions  in  the  years  agone. 

The  great  waves  still  sang  in  a  fierce  monotone,  the 
scurrying  trade  winds  tore  through  the  palm  groves,  lash- 
ing the  dead  leaves  against  the  trunks;  the  gilt-crested 
humming  birds  still  built  their  cup-shaped  nests  in  the 
rose  apples  and 'flitted  among  the-  banana  plants.  All 
these  things  were  as  of  yesterday ;  but  there  was  the  god- 
child grown  almost  to  maturity,  the  wrinkled  mother,  the 
decrepit  father;  and  of  the  old  Caribs,  who  alone  could 
speak  the  ancient  language,  not  ten  remained. 

The  Caribs  have  forgotten  their  original  tongue,  and 
in  the  island  patois  may  be  said  to  have  a  form  of  speech 
not  recognized  by  the  schools  of  Europe  or  America. 
Thus,  as  my  protegee  is  one  of  these,  I  may  claim  the 


THE  LAST  OF  THE  WEST   INDIANS    353 

unique  honor  not  only  of  being  godfather  to  a  descendant 
of  cannibals,  but  of  one  who  cannot  understand,  or  con- 
verse in,  my  own  language,  and  whose  speech  is  but  little 
used  outside  the  island  in  which  she  was  born. 

An  occurrence  in  August,  1904,  by  which  the  British 
Government  took  possession  of  Aves  Island,  which  lies 
about  127  miles  to  the  westward  of  Dominica,  in  the 
Caribbean  Sea,  brings  to  mind  an  entry  I  made  in  the 
journal  of  my  first  camp  in  the  latter  island,  away  back 
in  1878.  There  are  times,  I  wrote,  when  the  sea  does 
not  rise  up  to  meet  the  sky,  but  spreads  out  for  miles  and 
miles,  until  I  almost  fancy  I  can  see  to  Aves — that  soli- 
tary islet  far  west  in  the  Caribeean  Sea,  where  a  colony 
of  birds  breeds  on  the  sands. 

Aves  was  rarely  visited,  except  one  had  the  misfortune 
to  be  wrecked  there,  and  save  by  the  infrequent  fisher- 
men and  turtle-catchers ;  but  it  figures  in  Froude's  "  Eng- 
lish in  the  West  Indies,"  as  well  as  in  old  Pere  Labat's 
"  Voyages."  The  good  old  "  Father  "  was  once,  in  fact, 
ashore  there  with  a  French  buccaneer,  who  captured  an 
English  cruiser,  after  a  brisk  fight,  previous  to  which  the 
bellicose  "  Pere  Blanc  "  had  bestowed  his  blessing  upon 
him  and  his  crew. 

Canon  Kingsley  has  a  song  referring  to  Aves,  called  the 
"  The  Lay  of  the  Last  Buccaneer,"  which  may  have  been 
suggested  by  this  incident,  of  which  the  second  stanza  is : 

"  There  were  forty  craft  in  Aves  that  were  both  swift  and  stout, 
All  furnished  well  with  small-arms  and  cannon  all  about; 
And  a  thousand  men  in  Aves  made  laws  so  fair  and  free 
To  choose  their  valiant  captains  and  obey  them  loyally." 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

MARTINIQUE  AND  MONTAGNE  PELEE 

Windward  approach  to  Martinique  —  How  the  mass  of  Pelee 
dominates  the  island  —  Flying-fish,  cascades,  and  sand- 
beaches —  The  city  of  Saint  Pierre  from  the  sea  —  Its  houses, 
streets,  and  people,  years  ago  —  Running  streams  in  the 
streets,  and  babies  in  the  gutters  —  Bizarre  dresses  of  the 
Creole  women,  and  their  profusion  of  jewelry  —  The  light- 
hearted  population  —  The  fer  de  lance,  or  yellow  serpent  — 
Morne  Rouge  as  the  writer  saw  it  when  hunting  birds  in 
Martinique  —  Riviere  Roxelane  and  the  laundresses  —  Mon- 
tagne  Pelee  viewed  from  the  seaport  —  Climate  and  scenery 
of  lotus  land  —  Brief  mention  of  the  island's  history  —  Creole 
patois  and  characteristics  —  The  "  empire  gown "  of  Jose- 
phine's time  —  Birthplace  and  haunts  of  Napoleon's  first 
wife  —  Present  society  contrasted  with  that  of  the  past  — 
The  catastrophe  that  desolated  Martinique  —  Saint  Pierre 
overwhelmed  and  destroyed  —  The  sole  survivor  —  Aggregate 
loss  of  life  in  the  island  —  Neither  saints  nor  prayers  availed 
—  Saint  Lucia,  southward  from  Martinique  —  The  harbor  of 
Castries  —  Features  of  the  island  and  its  history  —  A  sickly 
place  and  one  to  be  shunned  —  Great  fortifications  erected 
here  —  Diamond  Rock,  which  was  once  rated  and  held  as  a 
war-ship  —  Battles  that  have  taken  place  in  Saint  Lucia  — 
The  island's  inferno,  and  the  picturesque  Pitons. 

WHILE  my  reminiscences  of  Martinique,  the 
island  next  south  in  the  Caribbean  chain, 
are  quite  as  pleasurable  as  those  of  Dominica, 
yet  they  are  clouded  over  by  the  horrors  of  that  cataclys- 
mal  catastrophe,  the  eruption  of  Pelee,  and  seem  unreal, 
weird,  as  though  of  a  world  and  people  that  have  passed 

354 


MARTINIQUE   AND    PELEE  355 

away.  Viewed  in  retrospect,  as  through  the  telescope 
inverted,  I  see  the  island  now  as  I  approached  it  from  the 
Atlantic  side,  coming  down  from  the  Bermudas,  where 
our  vessel  had  been  wrecked  and  detained  a  month. 

My  first  view  is  a  long  time  to  look  back  upon ;  but  no 
one  who  has  seen  the  north  end  of  Martinique,  with  the 
black,  frowning  mass  of  Montague  Pelee  rising  from  the 
sea,  its  base  wreathed  in  tropical  vegetation,  its  denuded 
peak  peering  through  evanescent  clouds  rolled  up  from' 
the  ocean  by  the  ever-blowing  "  trades,"  can  forget  the 
picture. 

Pelee,  in  fact,  is  the  dominant  feature  in  that  picture, 
rising  as  it  does  above  a  congeries  of  minor  mountains,  its 
four  thousand  five  hundred  feet  altitude  giving  it  prom- 
inence. Referring  to  my  notes  of  that  time,  I  find  it 
alluded  to  as  an  extinct,  at  all  events  quiescent,  volcano, 
whose  last  sporadic  eruption,  when  it  threw  out  smoke 
and  ashes  only,  occurred  thirty  years  before.  Approach- 
ing the  island  from  the  Atlantic,  the  "  windward  "  side, 
the  volcano  appeared  as  a  mass  of  dark-green  with  a 
serried  outline,  cleft  into  ravines  and  black  gorges 
through  which  ran  swift-flowing  rivers  by  the  score, 
gushing  from  internal  fountains  and  seeking  the  sea  be- 
neath tall  cocoa  palms. 

Rounding  the  northern  end  of  the  island,  of  which 
Pelee  is  the  outpost,  we  sailed  from  the  rough  waters  of 
the  Atlantic  into  the  smoother  seas  of  the  Caribbean,  the 
hills  and  mountains  at  once  afifording  a  lee,  and  the  beau- 
tiful flying-fish,  hundreds  of  which  had  skimmed  the 
crests  of  the  Atlantic  waves,  now  disporting  by  thou- 
sands. The  great  basaltic  cliffs,  which  towered  above 
crescentic,  palm-bordered  beaches  of  golden  sands,  cut 
off  the  breeze,  and  our  sailing  vessel  scarce  had  wind 


356        OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

enough  left  to  make  the  roadstead  of  Martinique's  com- 
mercial port,  Saint  Pierre.  The  "  trades "  still  blew, 
however,  strong  and  moisture-laden  from  the  windward 
coast,  as  evidenced  by  the  pattering  showers  educed  by 
condensation  against  the  mountain-sides,  and  a  glorious 
rainbow  spanned  Saint  Pierre's  mile-long  bay  from  north- 
ern to  southern  headland,  bathing  the  picturesque  city, 
tier  upon  tier  of  tinted  houses  topped  with  ferruginous 
tiles,  in  a  golden  mist. 

It  may  be  owing  to  the  fact  that  Saint  Pierre  was  the 
first  tropical  city  I  had  ever  seen  that  it  appeared  to  me 
the  most  fascinating;  but  of  a  truth  it  possessed  many 
quaint  charms  all  its  own.  It  occupied  a  narrow  belt  of 
shore  between  high,  cliff-like  hills  and  the  strand,  its 
stone-walled  houses,  white,  red,  yellow,  terra-cotta, 
solidly  embanked  along  the  shore  and,  higher  up,  scat- 
tered in  picturesque  confusion  among  clumps  of  tam- 
arind and  mango  trees,  with  here  and  there  tall  palms 
waving  their  fronds  aloft.  It  very  much  resembled  the 
city  of  Algiers,  minus'  the  mosques  and  the  Kasba,  but 
plus  the  palms.  Algiers,  as  I  saw  it  first,  beneath  a  full- 
orbed  moon,  impressed  me  as  the  most  beautiful  city  I 
had  ever  looked  upon,  but  I  think  that  if  Saint  Pierre  had 
not  been  so  closely  compressed  between  the  encroaching 
hills  and  the  sea  it  could  well  have  vied  with  the  African 
city.  Still,  nothing  could  compensate  for  the  loss  of  that 
magnificent  wall  of  living  green  which  served  as  the 
background  for  Saint  Pierre's  architecture. 

I  cannot  but  admit  that  the  city  was  disappointing  at 
close  view,  for  most  of  the  buildings  were  quite  tropically 
disregardful  of  appearance,  being  without  windows,  sans 
chimneys,  of  course,  and  made  of  conglomerate  materials. 
Nature   had   done   much— in   fact,   everything— for  the 


MARTINIQUE    AND    PELEE  357 

commercial  entrepot  of  Martinique  ;  man  had  made  a  few- 
feeble  attempts  at  adornment.  The  streets  were  narrow, 
save  along-  the  sea-front,  where  there  was  a  broad  quay 
paved  with  basaltic  blocks.  The  harbor — or,  rather,  the 
roadstead,  for  it  lies  wide  open  to  the  sea — is  deep  enough 
to  have  been  the  crater  of  old  Pelee  itself,  all  approaching 
vessels  having  to  run  out  an  anchor  at  a  short  distance 
from  the  land  and  then  moor  by  a  hawser  ashore.  There 
they  lay,  their  noses  pointed  seaward,  lazily  floating  upon 
the  placid  bosom  of  the  Caribbean,  with  water  just  out- 
side their  berths  a  hundred  fathoms  deep. 

This  depth  of  water  is  not  a  peculiarity  of  Saint 
Pierre's  roadstead,  however,  for  it  is  found  off  Roseau, 
in  the  island  of  Dominica,  next  adjacent  north,  off  Kings- 
town in  Saint  Vincent,  and  especially  in  the  harbor 
of  Saint  Georges,  Grenada,  which  is  indubitably  an  old 
crater  invaded  and  filled  by  the  sea. 

Having  visited  Saint  Pierre  several  times  since  my  first 
arrival  there,  and  having  retained  the  impression  that  it 
was  a  beautiful,  though  not  exactly  an  attractive,  city  for 
residence,  I  think  this  must  be  correct.  It  is  said  that  old 
Montague  Pelee  probably  blew  its  own  head  off,  through 
the  generation  of  steam  from  water  that  had  percolated 
through  its  crater-sides.  Well,  this  may  be  a  correct  as- 
sumption, for  certes  there  is  water  enough  in  the  island 
— or  there  was — and  to  spare.  The  atmosphere  is  ever 
moisture-laden,  streams  and  rivulets  run  everywhere  and 
in  all  directions,  descending  from  the  central  mountain 
masses.  The  strongest  feature  in  Saint  Pierre  was  the 
abundance  of  AX^ater,  running  through  side  channels  in  its 
streets  at  right  angles  to  the  quay,  overflowing  in  numer- 
ous fountains  and  oozing  out  above  the  city. 

In  the  beautiful  Jar  din  dcs  Plant  es  adjacen*-  to  the  city 


358        OUR  WEST   INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

a  glorious  cascade  dropped  over  cliffs  into  a  basin  bor- 
dered with  palms  and  tree  ferns.  But  for  the  water,  in 
fact,  the  city  would  hardly  have  been  very  desirable  to 
live  in ;  for,  as  it  was,  the  odors  at  times  were  very  nearly 
overpowering,  especially  in  the  wee  sma'  hours,  when  the 
domestics  threw  open  the  portals  of  their  respective 
domiciles  and  bore  forth  the  garbage,  which  they  dumped 
in  the  streams  flowing  through  the  gutters.  They  ap- 
peared only  at  appointed  hours,  the  city  being  as  well  regu- 
lated as  any  of  its  prototypes  in  France;  but  when  they 
made  their  exit  all  the  sailor  folk  in  the  harbor  knew  of  it, 
from  the  noisome  odors  exhaled.  Later  on,  about  aft 
hour  after  daybreak,  the  breakfast  dishes  were  often 
washed  in  the  clear  water  running  past  the  trottoirs;  still 
later,  most  attractive  babies,  variously  colored,  from  ebon 
and  chocolate  to  cafe  an  hit  and  old  gold,  but  all  happy 
as  the  morn  and  shrieking  from  overplus  of  joy.  Should 
breakfast-dish  or  baby  be  released  but  for  a  second,  down 
the  steep  incline  it  would  glide,  to  be  recovered,  if  at  all, 
only  at  the  shore. 

The  public  buildings  of  Saint  Pierre — such  as  the 
theater,  the  cathedral,  bishop's  palace,  the  great  barracks 
for  the  troops — were  all  massive  structures  and  in  good 
taste.  The  magasins,  filled  with  European  products,  were 
sufficiently  numerous,  and  the  city  was  well  equipped  with 
all  the  fittings  demanded  by  an  ambitious  metropolis  of 
the  twentieth  century. 

The  greater  portion  of  Martinique's  inhabitants  are 
black  or  colored,  the  African-derived  element  being 
vastly  in  preponderance  and  increasing  -year  by  year. 
The  female  colored  Creoles  of  Martinique,  particularly 
of  Saint  Pierre,  were  celebrated  for  their  quaint  and  bi- 
zarre costumes — flowing  robes  of  silk  or  calico,  always 


MARTINIQUE    AND    PELEE  359 

loose  and  open  and  of  the  brightest  colors.  The  dress 
most  affected  by  the  domestics,  hucksters,  and  even  by 
women  of  the  better  class,  was  designed  especially  for  a 
tropical  climate  and  cut  with  the  waistband  well  up  under 
the  shoulder-blades.  It  was  locally  known  as  the  "  cos- 
tume de  Josephine,"  after  a  tradition  that  this  famous 
daughter  of  Martinique  adopted  it  for  negligee  in  the 
seclusion  of  La  Pagerie. 

A  love  for  bright  colors  and  profusion  of  jewelry  is 
characteristic  of  the  Creole,  quadroon,  and  octoroon,  even 
the  "  Sambo  "  negress  being  very  particular  as  to  her 
turban,  which  must  be  fashioned  of  the  gaudiest  ban- 
dannas and  ornamented  to  the  extent  of  her  means.  She 
must  have  coils  of  beads,  gold  brooches  and  pins,  and  ear- 
rings, consisting  of  golden  fasces  as  big  as  a  baby's 
fist. 

Many  of  the  mixed  peoples  were  handsome  withal,  and 
some  of  the  girls  who  come  over  from  the  farther  side  of 
the  mountain,  doing  their  twenty  or  thirty  miles  to  market 
and  home  again  every  day,  were  models  of  symmetry.  I 
used  to  see  them  swinging  over  the  country  roads  with, 
long,  easy  strides,  immense  loads  of  produce,  such  as 
bananas,  plantains,  tanias,  piled  high  upon  their  heads, 
their  forms  erect  as  lances  and  their  torsos  such  as  might 
have  excited  the  envy  of  a  sculptor.  These  people,  and 
in  truth  all,  were  contented  and  happy,  prone  to  laughter, 
filled  to  overflowing  with  an  unfailing  bonhomie.  As  I 
recall  in  memory  these  mountain  maidens  that  used  to 
come  to  town  from  the  windward  coast  with  their  bur- 
dens of  produce,  I  see  their  supple  forms  swaying,  their 
bright  eyes  and  white  teeth  gleaming,  and  hear  again  the 
ripples  of  musical  laughter  and  their  cheerful  ''Bon 
jours''   and   ''Bon   soirs"   floating  on   the   morning   or 


36o       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

evening  air.  They  were  the  brightest  of  the  Martinicans, 
truly  sui  generis,  and  it  seemed  to  me  that  in  them  the 
country  and  the  cHmate  had  found  a  perfect  type,  as 
suited  to  the  tropics  as  the  mango  or  the  pomegranate. 

As  I  was  hunting  birds  those  days,  my  first  voyage  to 
the  Lesser  Antilles  having  been  in  the  pursuit  of  ornithol- 
o&y>  I  was  always  more  in  the  country  districts  than  in 
the  city,  and  so  became  acquainted  with  the  simple,  joy- 
ous country  folk.  They  were  always  willing  to  assist 
me,  and  frequently  a  man  cutting  cane  in  a  field  would 
stop  his  work  to  show  me  the  haunts  of  some  bird  or 
reptile,  or  one  of  the  mountain  maidens  would  lay  down 
her  heavy  load  to  point  out  a  humming-bird  or  to  warn 
me  of  the  serpent's  lurking-place. 

It  was  the  "  serpent  "  of  Martinique,  and  the  serpent 
only,  that  the  natives  feared.  They  gave  no  heed  to 
Mont  Pelee,  believing  it  harmless ;  but  they  were  ever  on 
the  alert  as  regards  the  "  fer  de  lance,"  that  most  veno- 
mous of  American  serpents,  which  makes  its  particular 
habitat  in  Martinique  and  the  near  island  of  Saint  Lucia. 
It  was  their  one  haunting  fear,  by  day  and  by  night,  for 
its  bite  meant  death.  The  serpent  itself  was  so  numerous 
as  to  invade  the  houses  even  of  Saint  Pierre,  and  so  ag- 
gressively venomous  as  to  seek  out  its  victims — in  this 
respect  being  different  from  all  others  of  its  family. 

When  hunting  in  the  Jardin  des  Plantes,  which  was 
practically  within  the  city  limits,  and  one  of  nature's 
beauty  spots — with  its  tall  "  palmistes,"  its  cascades,  its 
artificial  lakes  with  every  variety  of  tropical  foliage 
mirrored  in  them — I  was  always  accompanied  by  an  at- 
tendant sent  especially  to  warn  me  when  in  the  vicinage 
of  the  dreaded  "  lancehead."  In  one  of  my  journeyings 
I  made  my  headquarters  at  the  little  village  of  Morne 


MARTINIQUE    AND    PELEE  361 

Rouge,  from  which  I  went  out  on  hunting  excursions 
every  morning  soon  after  daybreak.  I  ranged  over  the 
hills,  such  as  Morne  Calabasse  and  Morne  Balisier,  even 
up  and  over  the  slopes  of  great  Mont  Pelee,  without  see- 
ing any  serpents,  though  having  several  ''  close  calls," 
my  native  attendant  told  me. 

The  name  "  morne  "  is  applied  throughout  the  French 
West  Indies  to  the  high  hills  and  low  mountains,  but  not 
to  the  greatest  elevations ;  so  there  are  many  "  mornes  " 
in  Martinique,  but  only  one  "  montagne,"  that  of  Pelee, 
which  is  further  distinguished  now  from  having  caused 
the  greatest  catastrophe  within  a  century.  This  mountain 
was  the  focal  point  of  all  views  at  the  north  end  of  the 
island,  visible  all  the  way  from  Saint  Pierre  to  Morne 
Rouge — as  one  crossed  the  Riviere  Roxelane,  where 
toiled  half-naked  washerwomen  laundering  their 
"  washes  "  with  clubs ;  across  the  savane,  the  level  field 
where  military  reviews  were  wont  to  be  held ;  through 
vast  cane  fields  and  among  luxuriant  gardens — ever  in 
view  was  the  Montagne,  sweeping  grandly  up  from  sea 
to  cloudland. 

I  used  to  watch  it,  together  with  some  of  the  few 
white  French  people  of  Saint  Pierre,  sitting  in  the  Jardin 
or  on  a  bench  beneath  the  mango  trees  not  far  from  the 
Grande  Rue.  Twenty-five  years  ago  the  white  popula- 
tion of  the  island  was  relatively  numerous ;  ten  years  ago 
I  found  it  lamentably  shrunken,  and  now  it  must  be  prac- 
tically extinguished.  First  the  black  flood  having  its 
origin  in  Africa,  then  the  lava  flood  from  the  heart  of 
Pelee,  swept  the  land ;  now  those  French-born  people, 
some  of  them  of  lofty  lineage,  are  almost  extinct. 

Not  a  few  travelers  have  asserted  that  the  island  of 
Martinique,  when  at  its  best,  came  as  near  to  realizing  the 


362        OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

ideal  paradise  on  earth,  so  far  as  climate  and  scenery 
could  make  it,  as  any  portion  of  this  mundane  sphere. 

The  popular  conception  of  an  earthly  paradise  is  always 
a  tropical  one.  Eden,  the  country  of  the  blest,  has  a 
climate  of  perpetual  summer,  where  snow  and  ice  are  un- 
known, except  in  refreshing  confections  and  beverages ; 
where  stately  palms  wave  their  golden  fronds  in  an  at- 
mosphere of  eternal  calm,  and  verdure-clad  mountains 
raise  their  sun-kissed  peaks  to  an  azure  sky  in  a  land  that 
is  "  always  afternoon." 

That  was  the  lotus  land  of  Martinique,  as  the  casual 
visitor  saw  it.  Situated  midway  in  the  volcanic  chain  of 
the  Caribbees,  and  about  half  way  between  the  equator 
and  the  northern  tropic,  it  was  one  of  the  Titanic  step- 
ping stones  that  connect  the  temperate  North  with  the 
tropical  South.  It  possessed  all  the  qualifications  for  the 
traditional  earthly  paradise.  Climate  and  scenery  were 
unsurpassed ;  it  had  noble  palms  in  ranks  and  groves, 
o'ertopping  silver-sanded  beaches  laved  by  sapphire-tinted 
waves ;  and,  to  complete  the  Edenic  simile,  it  had  its  ser- 
pent. No  other  fragment  of  a  continent,  torn  from  its 
parent  land  and  set  adrift  in  mid-sea,  can  boast  such  a 
venomous,  pestiferous  serpent  as  the  terrible  fer  de  lance, 
or  yellow  viper,  of  Martinique. 

In  the  last  decade  of  the  fifteenth  and  the  first  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  Spain  discovered  more  lands  than  she 
could  very  well  populate,  and  many  small  islands,  partic- 
ularly of  the  Caribbees,  were  left  in  solitude,  unvisited 
for  many  years,  some  of  them  finally  falling  into  the 
hands  of  French  or  English,  Danes  or  Dutch.  France 
happened  to  appropriate  this  beautiful  island,  and  the 
numerous  river  valleys  being  filled  with  fertile  soil,  the 
French  colonists  prospered  exceedingly.     So  great  was 


MARTINIQUE    AND    PELEE  363 

their  prosperity,  in  fact,  that  it  attracted  the  attention  of 
EngHsh  adventurers,  who  coveted  and  intended  to  own 
the  riches  of  the  Antilles. 

From  the  days  of  Drake  and  Hawkins  to  those  of  Rod- 
ney and  Bonaparte,  both  France  and  England  poured  out 
unstinted  gore  and  millions  of  treasure  in  the  taking  and 
re-taking  of  the  insignificant  Caribbees.  Martinique,  as 
well  as  some  others,  passed  like  a  shuttle-cock  from  one 
owner  to  another,  and,  as  the  eventual  outcome  of  the  pro- 
tracted conflict,  France  now  possesses  five  or  six  islands 
of  the  chain,  and  Great  Britain  nearly  all  the  rest. 

Still,  in  one  sense,  as  already  intimated,  the  French 
have  triumphed  over  their  erstwhile  foes,  for,  though  they 
can  show  fewer  terrestrial  possessions  in  the  Lesser 
Antilles,  their  speech  has  been  so  strongly  impressed  upon 
several  of  the  islands,  from  which  the  British  ousted 
them  in  centuries  past,  that  the  language  of  the  common 
people  is  almost  universally  a  French  patois. 

As  the  people  of  Martinique  have  a  dialect  of  their  own, 
so  also  their  appearance  is  distinctive.  French  Creoles, 
especially  those  of  the  mixed  caste,  are  famous  for  their 
beauty,  and  in  Martinique  they  seem  well  nigh  to  reach 
perfection.  There  is,  or  was,  a  subtle  alchemy,  either  in 
the  air  or  in  their  strain  of  blood,  that  gave  them  a  birth- 
right of  physical  charm.  Whatever  the  cause,  the  island 
had  good  reason  to  be  proud  of  its  beautiful  octoroons 
and  quadroons,  known  generally  as  metis,  with  the  purple 
sheen  of  their  long,  abundant  tresses  and  their  deep, 
searching,  melancholy  eyes. 

The  most  beautiful  types  were  to  be  found  in  the  coun- 
try interior — in  the  very  district  that  has  been  devastated 
by  the  eruption  of  Pelee ;  but  they  were  often  seen  in  St. 
Pierre,   the   city   destroyed   on   the   fatal  8th   of   May, 


364        OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

1902.  Tall,  straight  as  palms,  yet  with  a  languorous 
elasticity  of  movement  and  a  graciousne^s  of  manner 
peculiarly  their  own,  the  native  women  of  Martinique 
were  a  very  fascinating  quantity  in  the  personal  equation 
of  the  island. 

It  is  possible  that  their  attractiveness  was  enhanced  by 
the  costume  they  wore — else,  in  truth,  why  should  they 
have  adopted  it  ?  The  distinctive  style  in  Martinique  had 
as  its  most  marked  feature  a  loosely  flowing  robe,  high 
waisted  and  short  armed.  It  was,  as  someon.e  has  said, 
the  original  conception  of  the  ''  empire  gown  " ;  but  its 
fabric  disported  the  most  startling  colors  ever  conceived 
by  art,  the  effect  of  which  was  generally  accentuated  by 
a  gorgeous  bandanna  turban. 

No  less  interesting,  though  not  quite  so  picturesque, 
were  the  white  Creoles  native  born  in  Martinique.  The 
white  women  were  not  so  much  in  evidence  as  the  others, 
save  at  the  band  concerts  on  the  savane,  at  church,  or  at 
an  occasional  ball ;  but  to  one  who,  like  the  writer  of  this 
chapter,  knew  many  of  them  in  their  homes,  their  gra- 
cious charm  is  a  memory  most  precious.  The  Martini- 
cans  were  pleasure  and  laughter-loving,  light-hearted, 
hospitable  in  the  French  way ;  mindful  of  the  aristocratic 
ancestry  some  few  of  them  could  boast ;  and,  whether 
black  or  white,  jealous  of  their  island's  traditions. 

Perhaps  no  one  life  can  so  well  exemplify  the  peculiar 
fascination  of  Martinique's  fair  daughters,  and  at  the 
same  time  present,  as  in  epitome,  the  vicissitudes  of  the 
French  colonists'  fortunes,  as  that  of  the  Empress 
Josephine,  first  wife  of  the  great  Napoleon.  Everyone 
knows  that  she  was  a  native  of  Martinique;  that,  like 
Napoleon,  she  was  island  born,  and  a  Creole  in  the  true 
^ense  of  the  word.     Her  grandfather,  M.  Tascher  de  la 


5    ','  '  '     c 


MARTINIQUE    AND    PELEE  365 

Pagerie,  had  come  to  Martinique  in  1726.  He  settled  in 
the  island  as  a  planter;  but  that  he  was  a  personage  of 
rank  was  shown  by  his  application,  in  1730,  for  the  regis- 
tration of  his  letters  of  nobility.  His  eldest  son,  Joseph, 
in  1761,  married  Mile.  Rose  Claire  des  Vergers  de  San- 
nois,  to  whose  beautiful  sugar  estate  the  couple  retired 
soon  after  the  marriage. 

Standing  in  the  midst  of  the  savane  at  Fort  de  France, 
the  capital  of  Martinique,  and  at  present  its  largest  cen- 
ter of  population,  is  an  exquisitely  carved  statue  of  pure 
white  marble,  representing  the  Empress  Josephine  in  her 
prime,  when  she  was  the  wife  of  Napoleon.  It  has  stood 
there  more  than  thirty  years,  or  ever  since  it  was  pre- 
sented to  the  people  of  Martinique  by  her  grandson. 
Napoleon  III.  The  statue  fronts  the  entrance  to  the  har- 
bor of  Fort  de  France,  but  the  face  of  Josephine  is  turned 
aside,  her  wistful  gaze  being  directed  towards  a  low 
range  of  hills  across  the  bay,  about  five  miles  away,  be- 
hind which  nestles  the  valley  in  which  she  was  born. 
There  lay  the  estate  of  Sannois,  to  which  Lieutenant 
Tascher  de  la  Pagerie  took  his  bride,  and  where  his 
daughter,  Josephine,  first  saw  the  light,  on  the  23d  of 
June,  1763. 

A  typical  Creole,  Josephine  was  lithe  of  limb  and  deli- 
cate of  figure,  with  the  perfect  grace  and  freedom  of 
movement  that  comes  from  an  outdoor  life  and  an  in- 
fancy innocent  of  the  restraints  of  the  conventional  garb 
of  civilization.  From  childhood  she  possessed  a  surpris- 
ing winsomeness  that  fascinated  men  and  made  women 
jealous  or  suspicious.  Her  early  years  were  not  without 
hardship.  She  was  only  three  when  a  great  hurricane 
swept  over  Martinique,  destroying  much  property  and 
many  lives.     The  "  great  house  "  of  the  Tascher  estate 


366        OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

was  razed  to  the  ground,  and  the  whole  family  fled  to  the 
case  a  vent,  or  hurricane  cellar,  from  which  they  emerged, 
after  the  storm  was  over,  to  find  every  structure  but  the 
sugar  mill  without  a  rool  Discouraged  at  the  prospect 
of  rebuilding  his  dwelling  in  a  land  of  hurricanes,  M. 
Tascher  took  up  his  residence  in  the  sucrcric,  or  sugar 
house,  and  in  the  upper  room  of  this  massive  and  pic- 
turesque building  the  future  empress,  Josephine,  lived 
during  nearly  a  decade  of  her  youth.  Later  she  passed 
a  few  years  in  Fort  de  France,  mainly  at  a  convent 
school,  and  as  the  guest  of  an  aunt.  At  fifteen  she  went 
to  France  to  become  the  bride  of  Beauharnais,  and  after- 
wards the  consort  of  Napoleon. 

Thus  sails  beyond  our  ken  the  most  fascinating  daugh- 
ter of  Martinique,  and  the  best  known  in  history.  She 
found  fame  as  well  as  fortune — good  and  ill — in  the 
home  of  her  ancestors ;  but  she  often  turned  towards  the 
island  of  her  birth  as  the  scene  of  her  happiest  days. 

At  the  time  of  the  English  attack  upon  Martinique,  in 
1762,  there  existed  in  the  island  a  society  which  could 
boast  connection  with  the  highest  and  the  best  of  La 
Belle  France,  for  many  of  the  colonists,  like  Beauharnais 
and  La  Pagerie,  were  noble  by  birth.  And,  so  late  as  the 
second  empire  even,  the  island  was  noted  for  its  aristo- 
cratic colonists  and  numerous  settlers  of  good  lineage. 
But  within  the  last  forty  years  the  white  population  has 
steadily  dwindled — as,  indeed,  it  has  in  all  the  islands  of 
the  West  Indies — and  to-day  only  the  scant  remains  of 
the  past  attest  to  w^hat  made  the  French  possessions  great 
and  prosperous.  The  French  islands  were  more  carefully 
nursed  than  the  British,  and  have  been  made  to  yield 
more;  but  now  that  the  volcano  has  destroyed  Saint 
Pierre,  with  its  beautiful  Jardin  dcs  Plantcs,  its  museum, 


MARTINIQUE    AND    PELEE  367 

cathedral,  seminaries,  schools — its  centers  of  culture  and 
education — poor  Martinique  has  fallen  far  to  the  rear. 

It  was  on  the  morning  of  May  8,  1902,  that  the  catas- 
trophe occurred  in  Martinique,  almost  inconceivable  in  its 
magnitude,  and  more  disastrous  than  any  similar  the 
Western  Hemisphere  has  known.  Mont  Pelee  had  been 
wearing  its  "  smoke  cap  "  for  several  weeks,  but  the  in- 
habitants of  the  north  end  of  the  island  attributed  the 
phenomenon  to  the  volcano's  vagaries,  and  paid  httle  at- 
tention to  the  matter.  At  last,  however,  on  the  5th  of 
May,  there  was  a  tremendous  eruption,  by  which  vast 
volumes  of  mud  were  thrown  far  up  into  the  air,  and  a 
sugar  factory  overwhelmed,  with  a  loss  of  one  hunderd 
and  fifty  lives. 

The  people  of  Saint  Pierre  were  moved  from  their 
apathy  to  send  a  commission  of  investigation,  composed 
of  local  scientists,  who  returned  from  the  district  of  dis- 
turbance and  reported  the  worst  as  over.  They  had 
hardly  made  this  report,  however,  than  there  was  a  recur- 
rence of  the  strange  tremors  of  the  earth,  caused,  prob- 
ably, by  jets  of  steam  from  internal  sources  being  forced 
through  the  crust  or  crevices  in  the  rock.  There  were 
warnings  in  plenty,  but  they  passed  unheeded ;  for,  had 
not  the  "  volcan  "  stood  there,  within  plain  sight  of  Saint 
Pierre,  as  long  as  man  could  remember  ? 

Pelee  had  blustered  and  sent  out  incipient  eruptions 
fifty  years  before,  but  nothing  serious  had  resulted  from 
the  demonstrations,  so  when  at  last  the  showers  of  ashes, 
which  had  been  falling  continuously,  though  lightly,  for 
days  past  became  so  dense  that  the  sun,  on  the  morning 
of  that  fatal  8th  of  May,  was  hidden  from  sight,  even 
then  the  people  were  not  universally  alarmed. 

Suddenly,  however,  out  of  the  darkness  came  a  terrific 


368        OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

detonation,  as  if  the  plutonic  forces  enchained  within  the 
volcano  had  loosed  themselves  at  last  and  torn  the 
mountain  from  its  base.  The  terrified  inhabitants  of 
Saint  Pierre  had  hardly  time  to  exclaim :  ''  Pelee  has 
blown  his  head  into  the  sky !"  when  the  doomed  city  was 
overwhelmed  by  a  veritable  cloud  of  fire,  accompanied 
by  molten  rock,  poisonous  gases,  incandescent  sand  and 
scoriae.  The  hot  blast  consumed  the  people  ere  they 
could  escape,  and  the  fiery  cinders  covered  the  entire  area 
of  the  city  with  a  pall  of  desolation.  Within  the  space 
of  thirty  seconds  more  than  thirty  thousand  people  were 
wiped  out  of  existence  utterly,  sixteen  out  of  the  eighteen 
vessels  in  the  roadstead  were  either  sunk  at  their  moorings 
or  consumed  by  fire,  together  with  everybody  on  board, 
and  property  to  the  value  of  one  hundred  million  dollars 
was  destroyed 

In  addition  to  the  city  of  Saint  Pierre  and  its  suburbs, 
six  other  centers  of  population  were  then  and  later  de- 
stroyed, including  the  beautiful  hill-town,  Morne  Rouge, 
the  total  aggregate  of  lives  lost  being  not  less  than  fifty 
thousand. 

The  obliterated  towns  were  scattered  chiefly  along  the 
northern  and  northwest  coast,  and  contained  all  the  way 
from  two  thousand  to  eight  thousand  inhabitants  each. 
The  capital  city  of  Martinique,  Fort  de  France,  on  the 
leeward  coast,  about  twelve  miles  southeast  of  Saint 
Pierre  in  an  air-line,  lay  beyond  the  area  of  devastation, 
and  towards  this  city  the  various  relief  expeditions  were 
sent,  the  United  States  generously  leading,  for  the  suc- 
cor of  the  terror-  and  famine-stricken  refugees.  Rescue 
parties  were  sent  from  Fort  de  France  to  Saint  Pierre  as 
soon  as  they  could  endure  the  terrible  heat  emanating 
from  the  cinder-buried  city,  and  their  worst  fears  were 


MARTINIQUE    AND    PEL^E  369 

more  than  realized.  A  few  wretched  survivors  were 
snatched  from  the  shore  immediately  after  the  eruption, 
most  of  whom  died;  but  the  only  actual  survivor  rescued 
from  the  city  itself  was  that  miserable  negro  found  in  a 
dungeon,  who  afterward  came  to  the  United  States  and 
was  exhibited  in  the  dime  museums. 

Mounds  of  ashes  and  calcined  rocks,  mud-plastered 
walls  and  blasted  trees,  hideous  as  caricatures  of  nature's 
one-time  beautiful  productions,  together  with  windrows 
and  heaps  of  contorted  corpses,  met  the  gaze  of  the  awe- 
stricken  explorers  amid  the  ruins  of  Saint  Pierre.  Na- 
ture has  since  clothed  some  of  the  trees  in  verdure,  and 
brightened  the  ghastly  gray  and  formless  masses  with 
flowers;  but  Saint  Pierre  will  ever  remain  a  dead  and 
buried  city.  Never  more  will  its  streets  be  gay  with 
laughter-loving  Creoles,  or  resound  to  mirth  of  any  sort ; 
for  the  tragedy  was  too  vast,  too  terrible,  for  even  light- 
some natives  to  forget. 

One  might  have  expected  to  hear  of  accompanying 
volcanic  disturbances  either  in  Dominica,  to  the  north  of 
Martinique,  or  in  Saint  Lucia,  next  adjacent,  to  the  south  ; 
but  the  first  rumblings  were  heard  from  the  subterranean 
recesses  of  Saint  Vincent's  "  Soufriere,"  about  one  hun- 
dred miles,  as  the  crow  flies,  southward  from  Martinique. 
Between  the  two  islands  lies  Saint  Lucia,  which  is  as 
exact  a  duplicate  of  its  northern  neighbor  in  scenery,  gen- 
eral physical  formation  (and  also  in  the  habits  and  speech 
of  its  people)  as  can  be  imagined.  Only  this  feature  Mar- 
tinique and  Saint  Vincent  have  in  common :  that  each 
island's  volcano  is  near  its  northern  coast;  while  Saint 
Lucia's  soufriere,  or  sulphur  mine,  as  it  is  locally  called,  is 
at  the  south,  near  its  wonderful  *'  Pitons,"  or  pointed 
mountains. 


370       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

Like  all  the  other  islands  of  the  Caribbees,  Saint  Lucia 
consists  of  a  mountain  mass,  volcanic  in  its  origin, 
thrown  up  abruptly  from  the  sea.  This  congeries  of  hills 
and  mountains  is  covered  with  the  beautiful  vegetation 
peculiar  to  the  tropics,  with  palms  and  plantains,  banana 
and  sugar-cane  along  the  coast,  tree-ferns  and  a 
wilderness  of  gigantic  trees  in  the  hills.  Although  the 
island  is  little  more  than  twenty  miles  in  length,  with  a 
breadth  of  about  ten,  yet  it  contains  many  wonders,  not 
alone  of  vegetable  growth,  but  in  its  physical  features  as 
well. 

The  mountains  rise  to  various  heights,  some  of  them 
3000  feet  above  the  sea,  while  deep  valleys  indent  the 
coast,  containing  lands  of  exceeding  fertility.  Numer- 
ous bays,  with  beaches  of  yellow  sand,  lie  embosomed 
among  the  black,  basaltic  cliffs,  and  here  are  the  small 
villages,  that  are  sprinkled  around  the  bases  of  the 
hills. 

The  extreme  fertility  of  Saint  Lucia  is  the  bane  of  the 
planter,  as  well  as  his  source  of  revenue;  for  the  island 
is  afflicted  with  terrible  endemic  fevers,  arising  from  the 
rich,  deep  soil  and  its  decaying  growth  of  vegetation. 
Ever  since  its  discovery,  or  say  for  400  years.  Saint  Lucia 
has  been  a  scourge  to  the  settler  and  soldier. 

Thousands  of  brave  men  have  left  their  bones  in  this 
rich  soil,  and  have  drenched  almost  every  hillside  on  the 
northern  shore  with  their  blood.  For,  not  only  the  native 
fevers  have  decimated  the  garrisons  during  the  centuries 
this  island  has  been  in  European  possession,  but  they 
have  been  subjects  of  attack  from  other  foes.  For 
nearly  two  hundred  years  Saint  Lucia  was  a  bone  of 
contention  between  England  and  France.  First  one 
power  and  then  the  other  would  prevail,  until  at  last,  in 


MARTINIQUE    AND    PELEE  371 

the  early  part  of  this  century,  it  was  finally  taken  from 
the  French  by  Sir  Samuel  Hood,  and  has  remained  in 
British  hands  ever  since. 

Its  history  is  that  of  nearly  every  island  in  the  Carib- 
bean Archipelago,  except  Barbados,  for  there  is  not  one 
of  them  that  has  not  cost  a  hundred  times  its  value 
in  blood  and  treasure.  Although  a  long  time  in  British 
possession,  yet  it  is  only  within  a  few  years  that  Great 
Britain  has  done  anything  to  make  this  strong  position 
an  impregnable  one. 

All  these  volcanic  islands  have,  owing  to  their  sheer, 
abrupt  mountain  walls,  running  directly  down  into  the 
sea,  deep  water  right  up  to  their  shores.  Now  and  then, 
as  in  the  case  of  Saint  Lucia  and  Grenada,  there  are  deep, 
fiord-like  fissures  running  up  into  the  land,  forming  ex- 
cellent harbors.  We  may  safely  say  that  there  is  not, 
anywhere  in  the  West  Indies,  a  better  harbor  than  that 
of  Castries,  on  the  northern  coast  of  Saint  Lucia.  It  is  a 
mile  or  so  in  depth,  by  a  quarter  of  a  mile  in  width,  and  is 
completely  sheltered  and  land-locked. 

It  was  into  the  harbor  of  Castries  that  the  crippled 
"  Roddam,"  the  only  vessel  that  escaped  from  Saint 
Pierre's  harbor  on  that  dreadful  day  in  May,  1902,  came 
steaming  slowly,  courageous  Captain  Freeman  holding 
the  helm  with  burned  and  blistered  hands.  He  and  his 
men  went  into  hospital,  and  from  the  ship  were  taken 
120  tons  of  ashes,  showing  the  effects  of  that  "  cloud  of 
fire  "  which  enveloped  and  nearly  destroyed  it.  Here  is 
his  story:  "A  burning  mass  thrown  up  by  the  volcano 
struck  my  steamer  broadside  on.  The  shock  was  so  ter- 
rible that  it  nearly  capsized  the  vessel,  big  as  she  is.  On 
hearing  the  awful  explosion  that  had  preceded  the  shock 
to  ourselves,  and  seeing  what  looked  like  a  great  wall  of 


372        OUR  WEST  INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

flame  rapidly  approaching  us  from  the  volcano,  all  of  us 
on  board  sought  shelter  wherever  it  was  possible  to  get 
away  from  the  terrible  hail  which  then  began  to  fall 
around  us.  I  myself  ran  into  the  chart-room,  but  the 
burning  embers  were  borne  so  swiftly  upon  us  that  they 
swept  in  through  the  door,  almost  suffocating  me  and 
scorching  me  very  badly.  I  managed  to  reach  the  deck, 
where  I  mustered  a  few  survivors  and  ordered  them  to 
slip  the  cables.  While  this  was  being  done  I  leaped  upon 
the  bridge,  and  instantly  we  w^ere  clear  I  rang  to  the  en- 
gineer for  full  speed  astern.  The  second  and  third 
engineers  as  wxll  as  the  firemen  had  escaped  injury. 
They  bravely  did  their  part  at  this  awful  time,  but  the 
downpour  on  the  deck  was  so  terrible  that  the  men  could 
not  work  there.  The  steering  gear  became  choked  by  a 
mass  of  debris  that  had  fallen  on  the  ship  and  clogged 
up  every  part  of  her.  Accordingly,  after  running  for 
some  time  astern,  I  rang  again  and  went  ahead,  and  con- 
tinued this  until  the  gear  was  cleared  from  the  ashes  and 
dust  that  seemed  to  block  everything." 

Seven  hours  later  the  "  Roddam  "  entered  Castries. 

At  the  head  of  the  harbor  is  the  principal  town  of  the 
island — Castries — composed  of  some  good  public  build- 
ings, a  few  hundred  shabby  dwellings,  and  a  public 
square  and  botanical  gardens.  The  water  is  so  deep  that 
the  largest  ships  can  steam  directly  up  to  the  wharves; 
but,  having  said  that  the  harbor  is  safe,  deep,  and  shel- 
tered, one  has  said  all  there  is  to  say  in  its  favor.  For, 
owing  to  the  very  contiguity  of  the  protecting  hills,  and 
the  obstruction  to  the  free  play  of  the  air,  this  harbor  is 
one  of  the  hottest  and  sickliest  in  southern  waters. 

Only  the  natives  can  live  for  any  length  of  time  in  this 
pestiferous  hole.    The  choosing  of  this  port  for  a  gov- 


MARTINIQUE  AND  PELEE  373 

ernment  depot  was  made  the  subject  for  parliamentary 
inquiry,  its  insalubrity  was  so  notorious.  It  is  only  the 
fact  of  the  almost  impregnable  strength  of  its  position,  and 
its  advantageous  situation  as  regards  the  north  coast  of. 
South  America,  that  has  warranted  the  choice.  English 
engineers  have  declared  that,  so  far  as  natural  situation 
and  features  are  concerned,  the  crest  of  the  vigic — the  line 
of  hills  immediately  above  Castries — is  unsurpassed  for 
the  purpose  of  fortification. 

Under  their  direction  during  the  few  years  past  a  sys- 
tem of  fortification  has  been  planned  which,  experts  de- 
clare, rivals  anything  on  the  American  continent,  not 
even  excepting  Quebec.  Perfect  secrecy  has  been  main- 
tained during  these  operations,  and  no  outsiders  have 
been  admitted  within  the  line  of  defense  as  marked  out  by 
the  engineers.  All  the  laborers  are  guarded;  and,  as  few 
of  them  ultimately  escape  the  deadly  fever,  most  of  them 
have  carried  the  secret  with  them  to  the  grave. 

Visitors  are  permitted  to  ascend  the  hills  above  the 
town  as  far  as  the  government  house,  about  half  way  up, 
and  thence  the  view  is  magnificent.  A  goodly  portion  of 
the  island  is  within  view,  and  also  the  shores  of  fair  Mar- 
tinique, across  the  channel  of  clear  water.  Between 
Saint  Lucia  and  Martinique,  beyond  the  channel,  rises 
an  immense  mass  of  basalt,  called  Diamond  Rock.  This 
isolated  rock  was  at  one  time  seized  by  the  English  dur- 
ing their  war  with  the  French  in  the  last  century,  pro- 
vided with  a  garrison  and  fortified.  It  was  entered  on 
the  admiralty  lists  as  "  His  Majesty's  ship,  Diamond 
Rock  ";  and  for  a  twelve-month  the  crew  of  gallant  Eng- 
lish tars  held  to  their  perilous  position,  bombarding 
everything  that  passed  between  their  ship  and  the  main. 
They  were  at  last  compelled  to  capitulate,  their  admiral 


374       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

having  gone  off  and  forgotten  them;    but  not  until  all 
their  provisions  were  exhausted. 

Right  across  the  channel  from  Diamond  Rock,  and  al- 
most within  sight  of  the  vigie  of  Saint  Lucia,  lies  the 
estate  of  La  Pagerie,  once  the  home  of  Josephine.  The 
ruins  of  the  house  in  which  she  was  born  are  yet  pointed 
out,  and  the  pool  in  the  stream  where  she  used  to  bathe 
may  still  be  seen  beneath  the  silk-cotton  trees. 

One  should  not  leave  this  tropical  island  without  mak- 
ing a  visit  to  the  far-famed  Soufriere,  or  sulphur  de- 
posit, at  the  other  end  of  the  island.  Saint  Lucia's  in- 
ferno is  only  about  fifteen  miles  from  Castries,  and  there 
you  encounter  sulphurous  smells,  but  far  preferable  to 
those  of  the  hill-beleaguered  town. 

The  Soufriere  is,  in  fact,  the  crater  of  an  extinct,  or 
at  least  quiescent,  volcano,  about  looo  feet  above  the  sea 
level.  It  covers  about  three  acres ;  a  vast  caldron  of  sul- 
phur water  is  in  constant  ebullition.  The  shell  covering 
the  infernal  hole  beneath  must  be  remarkably  thin,  judg- 
ing from  the  rumblings  beneath  and  the  heat.  Now  and 
then  a  person  breaks  through  this  brittle  dome,  and  gets 
his  foot  well  scalded.  An  old  negro  was  pointed  out  to 
me  who  had  lost  a  leg  in  this  manner;  in  fact,  the  indi- 
vidual was  begging  for  pennies  with  which  to  purchase  a 
wooden  leg  to  take  the  place  of  his  original  member. 

Near  the  Soufriere  rise  those  remarkable  mountains, 
the  "  Pitons,"  or  cone-shaped  hills,  about  2500  feet  in 
height.  They  shoot  straight  up  from  the  sea,  a  beautiful 
bay  between  them,  looking  at  a  distance,  as  the  sailors 
in  those  seas  say,  like  a  pair  of  donkey's  ears. 


CHAPTER  XXIV- 
SAINT  VINCENT  AND  ITS  SOUFRI^RE 

A  camp  on  the  summit  of  the  Souf riere  —  A  volcano  that  seem- 
ingly slumbered  —  But  awoke  in  1902  —  The  eruptions,  ninety 
years  apart,  very  similar  in  their  phenomena  —  How  the  Carib 
country  was  destroyed  —  The  settlements  of  Yellow  and 
Black  Caribs  —  Hemmed  in  by  boiling  lava  rivers  and 
unable  to  escape  —  The  devastated  third  of  Saint  Vincent  — 
Destruction  of  the  Wallibou  and  Richmond  estates  —  Friends 
of  the  author  killed  by  deadly  fumes  —  When  I  was  a  guest 
at  Richmond  estate,  and  climbed  the  great  volcano  —  An  essay 
on  a  mule  —  Crossing  the  dry  rivers  made  by  former  erup- 
tions —  A  lunch  in  the  high-woods  —  My  camp  4000  feet 
above  the  sea  —  Aspect  of  the  two  craters  of  the  Soufriere  — 
A  venturesome  feat  —  In  search  of  a  mysterious  bird  —  How 
we  lived  in  a  cave  five  days  and  nights  —  A  Christmas  dinner 
^t  high  altitude  —  Man  Toby  springs  a  surprise  —  A  descent 
to  Yellow  Carib  country  —  Old  friends  with  whom  I  had 
fished  and  hunted  —  An  Indian  giant's  descendant  —  A  ban- 
quet hall  in  the  open  and  a  varied  menu  —  How  to  catch  the 
iguana  —  Food  of  the  Caribs  and  their  beverages  —  The 
Indians  now  extinct  as  a  community  —  A  race  with  death  — 
Brained  by  the  volcano  —  Kingstown  the  capital. 

ONE  of  the  strangest  of  my  adventures  occurred 
in  a  spot  which  can  no  longer  be  located,  except 
relatively  to  its  former  surroundings,  for  it  has 
been  removed  from  the  earth.  I  refer  to  the  summit  of  the 
Saint  Vincent  Soufriere,  as  it  existed  before  the  terrible 
eruption  of  1902.  If  that  eruption  had  taken  place  some 
twenty-five  years  previously  it  would  have  deprived  me 

375 


376        OUR  WEST  INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

of  an  unique  experience,  and  the  scientific  world  of  sev- 
eral rare  birds,  for,  in  the  last  month  of  1878,  I  was  en- 
camped in  a  cave  in  the  volcano's  crater-brim.  At  the 
period  of  my  ascent  the  volcano  was  only  a  harmless 
giant  with  a  past,  gloomy  and  forbidding  of  aspect,  tow- 
ering above  the  coast  and  range  of  interior  mountains  in 
majesty,  but  formidable  only  through  tradition. 

It  was  noted  as  the  last  West  Indian  volcano  from 
which  the  nineteenth  century  had  witnessed  destructive 
eruptions,  in  the  year  1812,  the  same  day  that  Caracas,  in 
Venezuela,  was  destroyed,  having  let  loose  its  internal 
forces  and  devastated  the  north  end  of  Saint  Vincent. 
Ten  thousand  people  perished  in  Caracas  that  day,  but  in 
Saint  Vincent  the  loss  of  life  was  small,  though  the  island 
was  covered  with  ashes,  cinders,  etc.,  and  many  estates 
were  ruined.  Then  the  giant  returned  to  its  seemingly 
sempiternal  repose,  during  ninety  years  giving  no  sign 
of  the  terrible  potential  energies  which  were  to  be  used 
against  the  unfortunate  dwellers  on  its  seaward-stretch- 
ing flanks  and  spurs. 

Saint  Vincent,  as  I  knew  it  in  1878  and  '79,  had 
changed  little  when  I  revisited  the  island  in  1891-92; 
but  ten  years  after  this  latter  date  it  had  been  converted 
from  an  abode  of  terrestrial  delights  into  an  isle  of  semi- 
desolation.  On  the  occasion  of  neither  visit  did  I  detect 
any  evidence  of  activity,  present  or  prospective,  in  the 
quiescent  Soufriere  that  towered  above  the  north  end  of 
the  island,  one  hundred  miles  due  south  from  Pelee,  the 
eruption  from  which  was  synchronous  with  its  own.  At 
the  time  of  the  eruption  of  18 12,  "  a  century  had  elapsed 
since  the  last  convulsion  of  the  mountain,  or  since  any 
other  elements  had  disturbed  the  serenity  of  this  wilder- 
ness besides  those  which  are  common  to  the  tropical  tern- 


SAINT  VINCENT  377 

pest.  It  apparently  slumbered  in  primeval  solitude  and 
tranquillity,  and  from  the  luxuriant  vegetation  and  forest 
growth,  which  covered  its  sides  from  base  to  summit, 
seemed  to  discountenance  the  fact  and  falsify  the  record 
of  the  ancient  volcano." 

Nearly  another  century  rolled  round,  or,  to  be  exact, 
within  ten  days  of  ninety  years,  before  the  giant  stirred- 
again,  turned  over  in  his  sleep,  and  crushed  the  pygmy 
dwellers  within  the  radius  of  his  activity.  The  second 
time,  within  the  memory  of  man,  human  beings  were 
caught  napping,  and  human  lives  were  lost,  through  a 
disregard  of  this  giant's  warnings. 

Nearly  three  months  before  the  last  eruption  took 
place  the  people  resident  at  Balaine  and  Windsor  Forest, 
on  the  flanks  of  the  Soufriere,  felt  repeated  shocks  of 
earthquake  and  heard  fearful  gri  mbling  sounds  proceed- 
ing from  the  earth's  interior. 

They  were  disquieted,  though  .lot  to  the  extent  of 
leaving  their  homes;  but  when,  on  Saturday,  the  3d  of 
May,  1902,  earthquakes  occurred  continually,  they  began 
to  pack  their  belongings;  and  on  the  6th,  when  smoke 
and  flames  were  seen  to  emit  from  the  old  crater,  the 
more  thrifty  of  the  Caribs  living  on  the  leeward  coast 
started  to  trek  to  places  of  safety. 

They  started  too  late,  for  by  that  time  the  rivers  run- 
ning down  to  the  coast  were  boiling  hot,  the  mountain 
slopes  were  enveloped  in  dense  clouds  of  smoke  and 
vapor,  shot  through  with  brilliant  flames  which  rose 
high  above  and  all  around  the  original  crater  of  the 
Soufriere.  All  available  boats  were  seized  by  fleeing, 
terror-stricken  people  of  the  leeward  coast,  who  hurried 
toward  Kingston,  the  capital,  with  tales  of  dreadful  hap- 
penings.     On    Wednesday,    the    7th,    the    noises    from 


378        OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

the  crater  were  like  the  heaviest  thunder,  or  the  roar  and 
rattle  of  incessant  cannonading.  Vast  columns  of  thick, 
ropy  smoke  -were  belched  forth  from  the  crater,  while 
the  volume  of  pumice,  grit,  calcined  earth,  and  stones 
was  so  vast  and  was  expelled  with  such  force  as  to  fall 
on  the  roofs  of  Kingston,  a  dozen  miles  away,  like  a  ter- 
rific shower  of  hail.  The  roar  and  rattle  of  the  falling 
stones  was  deafening. 

The  grandest  sights  were  witnessed  from  the  town  of 
Chateaubellair,  on  the  leeward  or  western  shore  of  the 
island,  beginning  at  about  noon  of  the  7th,  with  a 
magnificent  column  of  smoke  rising  toward  the  zenith, 
climbing,  ever  climbing,  'and  illumined  by  multiform 
electric  flashes  darting  in  every  direction.  ''  Sometimes, 
like  thin  ropes  of  golden  hue,  they  would  rush,  rocket- 
like, up  through  the  mighty  pillars  of  smoke,  through 
which  darted  continuously  the  most  awful  flashes  of 
forked  lightning."  According  to  the  reports  of  observ- 
ers, the  phenomena  were  exactly  the  duplicate  of  those 
which  occurred  in  1812,  and  an  account  of  the  former 
would  answer  for  the  latter. 

The  later  eruption,  however,  was  of  longer  duration 
than  the  former,  for  the  Soufriere  simmered  and  boiled, 
muttered  and  growled,  intermittently,  for  days,  weeks, 
and  months,  keeping  the  inhabitants  of  the  island  in  a 
state  of  constant  terror  and  suspense.  When  the  first 
outbreak  had  somewhat  subsided,  it  was  found  that  fully 
one-third  the  island,  north  of  a  line  drawn  from  Cha- 
teaubellair on  the  western  coast,  to  Georgetown  on  the 
eastern,  had  been  devastated,  while  the  eventual  total  of 
victims  killed  amounted  to  more  than  two  thousand. 
A  larger  area  had  been  overwhelmed  than  in  Martinique, 
but,  as  it  was  less  densely  populated  than  the  former,  there 


SAINT  VINCENT  379 

had  been  a  lesser  loss  of  life.  The  chief  loss  fell  upon 
the  Caribs  of  the  island,  who  were  practically  exter- 
minated. 

The  "  Carib  Country  "  of  Saint  Vincent  comprised — on 
paper — all  that  portion  of  the  island  on  both  coasts  to 
the  north  of  a  line  drawn  across  from  the  town  of  Cha- 
teaubellair  on  the  leeward  coast  to  Georgetown  on  the 
windward ;  but  in  point  of  fact  the  Caribs  possessed  but 
a  small  fraction  of  the  lands.  There  were  two  colonies : 
one  settlement  of  ''  Black  Caribs,"  as  those  were  called 
in  whom  the  negro  blood  was  predominant,  and  another 
of  "  Yellow  Caribs,"  who  had  less  negro  blood  in  their 
veins,  and  some  of  whom  could  boast  an  uncontaminated 
line  of  descent  from  cannibal  ancestry. 

Strange  to  say — and  at  the  same  time  it  is  a  reflection 
upon  the  manner  in  which  the  British  have  treated  these 
brave  people — the  comparatively  pure-blood  Caribs  had 
no  reservation  in  tribal  or  individual  name,  but  were 
compelled  to  rent  land  of  the  white  proprietors  of  Saint 
Vincent.  Their  principal  settlement  was  at  Sandy  Bay, 
in  the  most  secluded  part  of  the  island,  at  the  northeast 
end.  The  Bay  settlement  took  its  name  from  a  beach  of 
gray  sand  guarded  by  volcanic  rocks,  overtopped  and 
tapestried  by  tropical  vegetation.  The  seas  are  heavy 
here  on  the  windward  coast  exposed  to  the  fierce  Atlantic, 
and  the  Caribs,  though  expert  watermen,  were  some- 
times weeks  without  fish  food  of  any  ,kind.  Around 
their  wattled  huts  of  palm,  however,  they  all  had  gardens 
filled  with  tropical  vegetables  and  fruits,  their  chief 
cultivation  being  cassava  and  arrowroot,  for  which  there 
was  a  good  sale. 

The  Black  Caribs  lived  on  or  near  the  northwesterly 
tip  of  the  island,  at  a  place  called,  from  the  shape  of  a 


38o        OUR  WEST   INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

high  hill  there,  Morne  Ronde.  In  habit  and  disposition 
they  were  similar  to  the  Yellow  Caribs,  but  there  were 
many  so  black  as  to  be  hardly  distinguishable  from 
negroes.  Both  settlements  were  on  the  slopes  of  the 
volcano,  from  the  Yellow  Caribs'  country  the  great 
Soufriere  resembling  a  gigantic  lion  couchant.  With 
lava  rivers  descending  both  flanks  of  the  volcano,  and 
their  escape  cut  off  by  sea,  it  is  not  strange  that  nearly  all 
perished  in  the  great  "  Terror." 

History  repeated  itself  in  this  latest  eruption,  for,  as 
in  1 812,  it  began  with  terrible  detonations,  followed  by 
dense  columns  of  smoke,  and  then  the  crater  burst  its  con- 
fines and  overflowed  the  adjacent  country  with  molten 
mud,  with  an  accompaniment  of  poisonous  gases  which 
killed  whomsoever  were  not  whelmed  by  the  flood  of  mud 
and  lava.  The  Soufriere,  in  fact,  surpassed  all  previous 
perforrriances,  and  slew  hundreds  of  people  where  it  had 
killed  only  scores  before.  The  estates  on  the  leeward 
shores  nearest  to  the  volcano,  Wallibou  and  Richmond, 
which  suffered  somewhat  in  the  olden  time,  were  in  this 
latter  instance  utterly  destroyed.  A  torrent  of  boiling 
mud  swept  over  the  sugar  mill"  of  the  Wallibou  estate, 
and  then,  in  the  midst  of  night's  darkness  through  the 
obscuration  of  the  sun  by  smoke  and  vapors,  the  "  great 
house  "  of  Richmond  was  carried  from  its  foundations, 
eight  people  perishing  in  its  ruins. 

In  that  same  Richmond  great-house,  then  occupied  by 
the  hospitable  Evelyns,  I  had  stopped  for  a  week  on  my 
first  visit  in  1878;  and  on  my  second,  thirteen  years  later, 
I  was  the  guest  of  a  jovial  Scotchman,  Alex.  Eraser, 
and  his  wife,  both  of  whom  were  killed  in  the  eruption 
of  1902. 

In  response  to  my  inquiry,  about  a  month  after  the 


SAINT  VINCENT  381 

first  volcanic  eruptions,  there  came  a  letter  telling  me  that 
while  most  of  the  white  people  I  had  known  were  alive, 
though  in  straitened  circumstances  and  in  a  constant  state 
of  alarm,  all  the  Carib  Indians  of  my  acquaintance  had 
been  killed  by  the  deadly  fumes. 

"  The  only  white  people  killed  whom  you  formerly 
knew,"  my  correspondent  wrote,  "  were  the  Frasers,  who 
had  just  removed  from  the  Richmond  estate,  on  the  lee- 
ward coast,  to  Orange  Hill,  on  the  windward.  They  had 
been  at  the  latter  place  only  three  weeks  when  the  erup- 
tion took  place,  and  they  both  fell  victims  to  the  poisonous 
fumes.  Mr.  Fraser  was  found  sitting  in  an  easy  chair  in 
his  gallery,  with  a  smile  on  his  face,  and  his  wife  in  the 
garden,  both  dead.  Just  a  few  hours  before  a  friend  of 
the  family  tried  to  persuade  them  to  leave  the  plantation, 
as  the  crater  was  showing  signs  of  eruption;  but  they 
would  not,  though  the  friend  escaped." 

"  The  physical  features  of  Richmond  and  Wallibou," 
wrote  my  correspondent,  "  have  changed  entirely,  the 
latter  presenting  the  appearance  of  one  broad  stretch  of 
limestone,  with  only  scant  remains  of  the  sugar  factory; 
while  the  former  shows  hardly  more  than  the  foundations 
of  the  house.  The  heat  during  the  first  few  days  was  so 
great  that  no  one  could  approach  the  scene  of  devasta- 
tion ;  but  when  finally  surveyed,  it  was  found  that  the 
shore  had  receded,  and  deep  water  covered  spots  once 
accessible  by  foot  or  on  horseback." 

How  different  was  the  aspect  of  the  region  when,  one 
Christmas  week,  I  found  myself  a  guest  at  Richmond 
great-house.  The  season's  festivities  had  well  begun, 
work  in  the  sugar  mills  was  entirely  suspended,  and 
(aside  from  the  difficulties  of  securing  a  guide  for  the 
trip)    the  time  was  auspicious  for  an  ascent  of  the  Sou- 


382        OUR  WEST   INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

friere.  The  rains  that  always  accompany"  the  hurricane 
season — extending  from  July  to  November — had  entirely 
ceased  in  the  low  lands,  and  the  weather  was  serene. 

I  made  a  preliminary  ascent  and  return  one  day  to 
ascertain  the  necessary  equipment  for  a  prolonged  stay 
on  the  summit,  and  two  days  afterward  essayed  the  final 
journey.  My  host  had  provided  a  mule  for  me  to  ride 
and  a  black  man  as  servant  and  burden  bearer,  while  a 
small  boy  trotted  alongside,  laden  with  a  huge  hamper 
or  Carib  basket  filled  with  good  things  to  eat  and  drink, 
which  he  carried  well  balanced  on  his  head. 

We  followed,  first,  the  road  along  the  shore,  at  the 
base  of  great  clififs  and  between  clumps  of  gru-gru 
palms,  then  forded  the  turbulent  river,  which  was  entirely 
extinguished  by  the  last  eruption,  finally  arriving  at  the 
bed  of  the  "  dry-river,"  a  channel  filled  with  lava  in  the 
outpouring  of  1812.  The  steep  banks  on  either  side  this 
lava  river  were  like  hanging  gardens  of  vines,  palms,  tree 
ferns,  and  wild  plantains ;  but  the  broad,  rocky  beds 
were  barren  of  all  vegetation  as  well  as  without  water. 
After  passing  through  an  attractive  cane-field  (which  is 
now  but  an  area  of  desolation)  we  reached  the  still  more 
attractive  foot-hills,  where  the  real  climb  began,  over  a 
ridge  dividing  two  beautiful  valleys,  at  that  time  verdant 
and  smiling,  but  now  denuded  of  all  vegetation,  lava- 
choked  and  blasted  by  fiery  gases. 

Two  hours'  riding  took  me  to  the  forest  edge,  well 
within  which  was  a  vast  "  gommier,"  locally  known  as 
the  "  maroon,"  or  picnic,  tree.  Here  custom  ordained  a 
halt  for  breakfast.  My  man  unpacked  the  smaller  hamper 
and  spread  out  a  fine  repast  which  had  been  prepared  in 
advance  by  the  good  people  of  Richmond.  We  were 
then  in  the  "  high-woods,"  or  forest  belt,  that  engirdles 


SAINT  VINCENT  383 

all  the  hills  of  the  island  above  an  altitude  of  1500  feet. 
The  heat  of  the  lowlands  was  here  tempered  by  altitude 
and  the  cool  breezes  that  played  through  the  leafy  canopy 
overhead,  while  the  gloom  beneath  the  great  tree  was 
enlivened  by  the  play  of  humming-birds'  wings.  In  the 
tree  tops  cooed  the  wood  pigeons,  from  a  distance  came 
the  subdued  chatter  of  wild  parrots. 

Another  mile  of  climbing  over  a  steep  but  well-made 
trail  took  us  along  the  back-bone  of  the  ridge,  well  above 
the  high-woods,  where  the  surface  was  covered  with  a 
densely  woven  carpet  of  ferns  and  lycopodiums,  and  when 
we  had  reached  an  altitude  of  about  4000  feet  wafts  of 
sulphur  fumes  warned  me  that  we  were  near  the  crater's 
edge.  Here  my  mule  balked  violently,  either  at  the  nar- 
row, tortuous  trail  ahead  or  the  objectionable  fumes  of 
sulphur,  and  I  had  to  dismount  and  proceed  the  rest  of 
the  way  on  foot. 

Suddenly  I  came  upon  the  crater,  descending  from  the 
narrow  brim  upon  which  I  stood  like  an  amphitheater, 
nearly  circular,  and  about  a  mile  in  diameter.  It  formed 
an  almost  perfect  bowl,  with  sides,  in  places,  almost  per- 
pendicular. There  were  two  craters,  in  fact,  divided  by 
a  jagged  escarpment,  one  known  as  the  "  old,"  and  the 
other,  which  is  said  to  have  been  formed  by  the  eruption 
of  1812,  called  the  "  new."  It  used  to  be  a  feat  of  ven- 
turesome sailors  to  swarm  across  the  dividing  wall,  one 
of  the  famous  personages  to  attempt  it,  in  1861,  being  the 
late  Duke  of  Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.  The  double  crater 
was  lowest  at  its  northeast  brim,  over  which,  in  the  last 
eruption  and  in  that  of  ninety  years  ago,  poured  the 
floods  that  devastated  Morne  Ronde. 

I  watched  the  placid  lake  during  the  greater  part  of  a 
week,  for  in  a  scooped-out  hole  just  under  the  dome- 


384        OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

shaped  summit  of  the  southern  wall  (by  courtesy  called  a 
cave,  though  scarcely  ten  feet  deep)  I  took  up  my  abode. 
It  was  a  crazy  thing  to  do — granted ;  but  I  had  an  object 
in  camping  there  which  (at  least  at  that  time)  seemed  to 
me  worthy  the  means  I  was  compelled  to  adopt.  In 
brief,  the  real  object  of  my  trip  was  not  so  much  to  study 
meteorological  or  other  conditions  on  a  volcano  summit 
in  the  tropics,  four  thousand  feet  above  the  sea,  as  to 
obtain  a  new  bird. 

This  was  about  the  end  of  my  first  year  in  the  West 
Indies,  and  I  had  already  been  fortunate  enough  to  find 
several  new  species  of  birds.  So,  when  I  was  told  in 
Kingston,  the  capital  of  Saint  Vincent,  that  there  was  a 
bird  resident  on  the  Soufriere  which  no  man  had  ever 
seen,  much  less  taken,  alive  or  dead,  I  was  inspired  with 
the  desire  to  get  it.  In  my  preliminary  trip  I  had  heard, 
but  had  not  been  able  to  find,  the  "  mysterious  Soufriere 
bird,"  as  it  was  called;  hence  the  second  ascent  and  the 
camp  in  the  crater. 

My  black  man,  Toby,  was  late  in  arriving  at  the  cave, 
burdened  as  he  was  with  an  enormous  load  of  provisions, 
and  the  sun  had  set  before  our  preparations  were  finished 
for  the  night.  I  had  made  many  camps  before,  and  by 
my  direction  Toby  planted  four  small  trees,  which  he 
hewed  down  with  his  cutlass,  about  eight  feet  apart,  over 
the  crotches  of  which  I  stretched  a  line  and  hung  my 
hammock.  A  pole  above  served  to  spread  a  square  of 
canvas,  which  was  fastened  at  the  corners  to  pegs  driven 
into  the  soil,  an  army  blanket  was  bedding,  and  an  old 
overcoat  served  as  a  pillow. 

As  for  Toby,  he  crouched  in  a  sheltered  corner  of  the 
cave,  after  we  had  munched  sardines  ahd  crackers  and 
drunk  some  coffee,  and  from  the  way  he  snored  I  fancy 


SAINT  VINCENT  385 

he  did  not  much  concern  himself  as  to  his  environment. 
He  was  a  philosophic  negro,  and  after  passing  the  first 
night  in  some  discomfort  he  next  day  built  a  shelter  of 
sticks  and  balisier  leaves,  accepted,  though  not  without 
protest,  one  of  my  blankets,  and  seemed  perfectly  con- 
tent— or  he  was  until  he  learned  the  object  of  my  visit — 
the  shooting  of  the  Soufriere  bird — when  his  belief  in 
jombies  and  obeah  asserted  itself  so  strongly  that  it  was 
with  difficulty  I  persuaded  him  to  remain  until  the  end. 

After  three  days  had  passed  without  even  a  glimpse  of 
the  "  invisible  bird,"  and  I  had  suffered  considerably  from 
bruises  received  by  falling  into  pot-holes  and  ravines 
concealed  by  the  dense  matting  of  ferns  and  lycopodiums, 
Toby  asserted  "  him  was  jombie-bud,  sah;  him  bring  yo' 
bad  luck,  ef  yo'  don'  watch  out !  " 

I  was  then  anxious  to  shoot  the  bird,  if  only  to  prove  to 
Man  Toby  the  fallibility  of  his  argument,  and  at  dawn  of 
the  fourth  day,  after  passing  a  restless  night  drenched  by 
the  mists  from  the  "  trades,"  I  wandered  out,  determined 
to  get  the  bird,  if  it  lay  in  my  power  to  do  so.  Fortune 
favored  me,  at  least  to  the  extent  of  granting  my  desire, 
and  before  ten  o'clock  I  held  in  my  hand  the  first  bird  of 
its  kind  ever  seen  and  identified  by  man.  I  had  brought 
it  within  range  by  a  bird-call  the  Dominican  Caribs  had 
taught  me,  and  which  I  had  forgotten  to.  use  before  on 
this  trip.  After  the  capture  of  the  first  bird  I  merely 
waded  into  the  dense  growth  of  ferns,  keeping  myself 
concealed,  and  called  others  of  the  species  to  me,  procur- 
ing in  this  manner  a  sufficient  number  for  my  purpose. 

The  fifth  morning  of  our  stay  dawned,  like  all  the  four 
preceding  days,  with  the  mountain  and  crater  wrapped  in 
mist.  Having  my  birds  to  skin  and  notes  to  write  up,  I 
had  concluded  to  refrain  from  hunting,  especially  as  it 


386       OUR  WEST  INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

was  Christmas  morning,  and  we  had  a  long  afternoon 
journey  to  make  down  the  windward  coast  to  Carib  land, 
Toby  sat  in  the  cave's  mouth,  gloomy  and  glowering.  An 
I  rolled  out  of  my  hammock,  he  said : 

"  Massa,  you  know  what  day  dis  is  ?  " 

"  Yes,  Toby ;  it  is  Christmas,  and  a  mighty  gloomy  one, 
too,  it  seems  to  me." 

"  Dat  am  fac,  massa.  Ain'  seen  de  sun  good  sense  we 
come  heah,  fo'  truf.  But  dc  sun  am  gwine  ter  shine,  sah, 
'bout  noon.  Now,  me  massa,  me  ax  as  'tic'lar  favah  dat 
you  go  'way  about  er  houah  while  I  gits  de  brekfus' 
ready.     I'se  gut  a  s'prise  fo'  you,  sartin  shuah." 

Loath  as  I  was  to  leave  camp,  I  could  not  but  see  that 
Toby  had  some  particular  reason  for  desiring  my  absence 
a  while,  and  so  humored  him.  Taking  my  gun,  I  wan- 
dered away  to  the  verge  of  the  western  crater,  where  I 
was  given,  as  the  sun  dissolved  the  mists  that  hung  about 
the  mountain-top  and  over  the  valleys,  what  seemed  to 
me  then  like  a  foretaste  of  heaven,  in  the  view  outspread 
below.  The  leeward  coast  was  drawn  out  for  miles,  and 
looking  over  a  vast  expanse  of  verdure-clad  hills  and 
valleys,  beyond  the  glittering  waves  of  the  Caribbean  Sea, 
I  saw  the  pointed  Pitons  of  Saint  Lucia,  with  a  water- 
spout trailing  along  between  the  islands,  connecting  sea 
and  sky. 

When  I  returned,  Toby  had  the  cave  newly  swept  and 
garnished,  while  on  the  balisier  leaves  spread  upon  the 
ground  (which  served  us  in  lieu  of  table)  was  a  Christ- 
mas breakfast  fit  for  anyone  to  eat.  As  we  were  to  be 
on  the  move  in  the  afternoon,  Toby  had  combined  dinner 
and  breakfast  in  one  meal,  so  there  was  the  inevitable 
*'  guinea-bird,"  plump  and  browned  to  bursting,  flanked 
by  a  small  English  plum-pudding  and  a  pile  of  fruit.    A 


SAINT  VINCENT  387 

glass  of  java-plum  wine  stood  by  my  plate  (which  was 
of  tifi,  by  the  way,  though  it  shone  like  silver),  and  a 
bottle  of  "  shrub,"  a  Hquor  distilled  from  rum  and  lime^ 
juice,  was  conveniently  at  hand.  In  the  background, 
standing  beneath  the  over-hanging  roof  of  our  cave,  was 
Toby,  rubbing  his  hands  with  glee  at  sight  of  the  aston- 
ishment depicted  on  my. face. 

"  Um  t'ought  you'd  be  s'prised,  me  massa.  Um  done 
keep  da  guinea-bud  an'  da  pudden  secret  all  to  mase'f. 
Massa  Ebelyn  an'  missus  done  sen'  'em  up  wid  da  com- 
pluments  ob  de  season,  sah.  Dey  bery  nice  pussons 
down  at  de  gret-house  on  Richmond  'state,  sah." 

"  Indeed  they  are,  Toby,  and  here's  to  their  health,"  I 
said,  taking  up  my  glass.  "  Fill  your  dipper  with  shrub, 
my  man,  and  we'll  drink  to  them :  Long  life  and  pros- 
perity for  the  generous  people  on  the  Richmond  estate !  " 

After  breakfast  was  over,  the  bird  skins  prepared,  and 
notes  written  out,  we  broke  camp  in  our  cave  on  the 
crater,  and  shortly  after  noon  took  the  trail  for  the  wind- 
ward coast  and  Carib  country. 

Christmas  week  was  well  along  toward  its  ending  when 
I  descended  the  windward  slopes  of  the  Soufriere  and 
sought  the  shores  of  Sandy  Bay,  where  lived  the  last  rem- 
nants of  the  Carib  Indians.  But  the  Christmas  rejoic- 
ings were  by  no  means  over,  for  they  last  a  fortnight  in 
that  favored  land  down  near  the  equator ;  and,  moreover, 
word  had  been  sent  and  passed  along  that  I  was  coming, 
so  if  necessary  the  festivities  would  have  been  protracted. 
For  this  was  my  second  visit  to  the  Caribs ;  and  as  on  the 
first  one  I  had  remained  for  weeks,  had  hunted  with  them, 
fished  with  them,  eaten  at  their  tables,  and,  in  fact,  had 
been  as  good  an  Indian  as  I  knew  how  to  be,  on  this  my 
second  coming  I  was  more  than  welcome. 


388       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

I  was  met  at  the  ''dry-river"  (a  stream  the  bed  of 
which  had  been  filled  with  lava  from  the  volcano  in  a 
previous  eruption)  by  the  sub-chief,  old  Rabacca,  who 
conducted  me  to  Overland,  a  village  of  mixed  Indians 
and  blacks,  whence  my  trip  to  Sandy  Bay  was  a  con- 
tinuous ovation.  Rabacca  was  descended  from  an  Indian 
giant,  who,  after  killing  many  white  men  of  the  island 
more  than  a  hundred  years  ago,  was  finally  captured  and 
gibbeted  in  chains,  surviving  a  week  in  dreadful  torment 
and  dying  with  imprecations  against  the  English  on  his 
shriveled  lips.  Rabacca,  however,  had  inherited  no 
animosity  against  the  white  man,  his  worst  enemy  being 
that  West  Indian  substitute  for  *'  John  Barleycorn," 
aguardiente,  or  native  rum.  When  not  in  his  cups 
Rabacca  was  the  best  worker  on  the  windward  sugar 
plantations,  none  other,  be  he  white,  red,  or  black,  being 
his  equal  at  loading  a  "  moses  boat "  in  the  heavy  surf 
that  beats  continuously  on  the  island's  east  shore. 

Rabacca  conducted  me  to  a  little  hut  of  reeds,  wattled 
and  thatched  with  palm  leaves,  where,  after  my  hammock 
had  been  swung  and  my  effects  installed,  he  acted  as 
master  of  ceremonies  and  reintroduced  me  to  the  old 
friends  of  many  years  agone.  This  done,  I  was  invited 
to  accompany  the  assembled  Caribs  to  the  banquet  hall,  a 
little  distance  away,  where  the  feast  was  already  set  out 
that  had  been  prepared  against  my  arrival.  The  "  hall," 
by  the  way,  was  merely  a  vast  roof  of  palm  thatch  set 
upon  stout  poles,  open  on  every  side,  shaded  by  palms, 
with  entrancing  views  outspread  around  of  smiling  sea 
and  gloomy,  forest-clad  mountain  slopes.  Beneath  the 
thatch  was  a  long  table  of  rough  boards,  covered  with 
plantain  leaves,  upon  which  were  spread  not  only  such 
products  of  land  and  sea  as  bounteous  nature  has  lavished 


SAINT  VINCENT  389 

upon  dwellers  in  the  tropics,  but  many  viands  imported 
from  abroad.  For  instance,  there  was  "  tinned  "  mutton 
from  London,  genuine  Southdown,  flanked  with  heaps  of 
breadfruit,  roasted  as  well  as  boiled.  And,  by  the  way, 
if  there  is  anything  more  palatable — at  least  to  a  hungry 
hunter — than  boiled  breadfruit  with  Southdown  mutton 
and  drawn  butter,  it  is  that  same  fruit  similarly  served 
after  having  been  roasted  in  the  ashes  of  a  campfire. 

As  to  farinaceous  foods,  the  Caribs,  as  well  as  all  the 
natives,  revel  in  them,  as  well  as  in  all  kinds  of  tropical 
fruits;  for  what  with  yam,  the  eddoe,  the  banana  and 
plantain,  the  cassava,  arrowroot,  etc.,  they  can  boast  an 
inexhaustible  supply.  Their  chief  source  of  reliance, 
however,  is  the  cassava,  from  the  tubers  of  which  they 
prepare  "  farine,"  or  flour.  In  their  raw  state  the  tubers 
are  exceedingly  poisonous,  but  after  they  have  been 
deprived  of  their  outer  cuticle,  thoroughly  washed  and 
grated  into  farine,  which  is  baked  in  thin  cakes  over  a 
quick  fire,  they  form  a  wholesome  and  nourishing  food. 
The  farine  cakes  are  made  about  two  feet  in  diameter, 
and  after  having  been  hung  out  in  the  air  to  dry  they 
will  keep  a  long  time. 

Besides  the  omnipresent  cassava  cakes,  we  had  that  day 
another  product  of  the  root,  or  rather  an  article  In  which 
it  is  the  chief  constituent,  the  renowned  West  Indian 
pepper-pot.  Now,  the  genuine  pepper-pot  is  something 
that  must  be  made  in  tropical  countries  to  be  at  its  best, 
for  its  peculiar  quality  depends  upon  the  "  cassareep  " 
that  is  in  it,  and  this  is  derived  from  the  juice  of  the  cas- 
sava. The  poisonous  juice,  its  noxious  principle  dissi- 
pated by  heat,  forms  when  concentrated  a  preservative 
peculiar  and  powerful,  which  is  the  basis  of  the  pepper- 
pot.     After  a  certain  quantity  is  placed  in  an  earthen  ves- 


390       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

sel  its  antiseptic  property  serves  to  preserve  fish,  flesh,  and 
vegetables  for  an  indefinite  period.  As  a  consequence 
the  pepper-pot  jar  is  always  at  hand,  into  it  being  thrown 
the  odds  and  ends  of  repasts — in  fact,  "  any  old  thing  " 
in  the  way  of  food.  The  Spaniards  call  the  mess  an 
''  olla  podrida,"  literally  "  rotten  pot,"  but  nevertheless 
the  pepper-pot  will  continue  to  hold  its  own  as  a  piquant 
comestible  for  a  great  many  years  to  come. 

The  Caribs  of  St.  Vincent  are  now  extinct  as  a  com- 
munity, their  settlements  at  Morne  Ronde  and  Sandy  Bay 
having  been  completely  obliterated.  Of  all  those  who 
received  me  so  hospitably,  setting  forth  nearly  all  their 
substance  at  this  Christmas  dinner,  not  one  remains  alive 
to-day.  They  have  perished  from  the  earth,  and  every- 
thing they  possessed  has  been  utterly  destroyed. 

On  that  fateful  7th  of  May,  1902,  when  the  crater 
was  ablaze,  torrents  of  boiling  mud  rolling  down  the  sides 
of  the  Souf  riere,  and  millions  of  stones  hurtling  through 
the  air,  the  Caribs  of  both  coasts  w^ere  engaged  in  a  race 
with  Death — and  Death  won !  Twenty-six  were  killed 
in  a  single  house,  one  man  was  brained  by  a  stone  thrown 
by  the  volcano  nine  miles  from  the  crater;  hardly  any 
Caribs  within  the  **  death  zone  "  escaped  alive,  for  the 
demon  of  the  Soufriere  seemed  resolved  upon  their  exter- 
mination. 

I  would  there  were  space  in  which  to  mention  all  there 
is  in  Saint  Vincent  worthy  description;  then  the  re- 
mainder of  this  book  would  be  devoted  to  that  island.  Its 
capital  is  Kingstown,  with  a  nonnal  population  of  five 
thousand,  and  picturesque  dwellings  scattered  through 
groves  of  palms  lined  up  around  a  curving  beach.  A 
fort  is  perched  upon  the  northern  promontory  of  Kings- 
town bay,  six  hundred  feet  above  it,  and  valleys  run  back 


u 


o 

en 
O 


C3 

o 

O 


c     c 
t     c 


^   ^    c   c     c  ^     i.  / 


^  ^' '  '   ' 


SAINT  VINCENT  391 

into  the  hill  country  filled  with  all  sorts  of  tropical  trees. 
Near  to  town  is  the  old  botanic  garden,  in  which  are  nut- 
megs and  other  spice  trees  which  have  been  long  in  culti- 
vation, for  this  is  the  oldest  botanical  station  in  the 
Lesser  Antilles.  There,  also,  is  situated  Government 
House,  where,  in  the  old  times,  I  was  a  guest  of  good 
Governor  Dundas,  and  where  to-day  the  Administrator 
resides. 

The  peak  of  Morne  Saint  Andrews  overlooks  the  town, 
and  the  mountain  ridges  run  down  the  leeward  coast, 
jutting  out  in  promontories  between  which  lie  the  most 
beautiful  of  valleys  filled  with  sugar-cane  and  arrow- 
root plantations.  One  of  them,  Rutland  Vale,  has  been 
bought  by  the  Government  with  money  contributed  in 
England  and  the  United  States,  and  devoted  to  the  ref- 
ugees from  Carib  country,  and  others,  who  were  domi- 
ciled there  and  assigned  lands  for  cultivation.  The  land 
is  rich,  and  the  scenery  beautiful,  as  I  recall  the  estate  in 
its  prime,  having  been  there  once  for  a  month  while  con- 
valescing from  a  fever,  the  guest  of  a  noble  Scotchman, 
James  Milne,  who,  with  his  good  wife,  has  gone  to  join 
the  great  majority.  Their  graves  are  in  the  churchyard 
at  Kingstown,  but  their  blessed  memory  is  alive  in  many 
hearts. 


CHAPTER  XXV 

BARBADOS,  GRENADA,  AND  TOBAGO 

An  island  highly  cultivated  —  A  bit  of  Old  England  —  Where 
people  are  poor,  but  happy  —  The  Old  Man  of  Africa  — 
Rotating  the  seductive  swizzle  —  B'ados  once  visited  by 
George  Washington  on  his  only  foreign  voyage  —  Typical 
tropical  homes  abounding  in  hospitality  —  Bridgetown  and 
Carlisle  roadstead  —  Codrington  College  —  The  beautiful 
country  districts  —  Grenada  and  Grenadines  —  The  Carib's 
"jumping-off  place"  —  Grenada's  capital,  Saint  Georges  — 
Its  interior  region  of  delights  —  Land  of  the  "  black  proprie- 
tors," who  are  thrifty  and  thriving  —  Colonial  officialdom  in 
the  islands  —  Fruits  and  spices  —  Tobago,  the  true  Crusoe's 
Island,  and  facts  to  prove  the  same  —  Where  Crusoe  was 
wrecked  —  Brief  mention  of  history  —  Perhaps  the  original 
home  of  tobacco  —  At  least  some  people  think  so  —  A  tropical 
island  with  fine  forests  —  The  author  once  camped  in  Tobago, 
a  la  Crusoe,  and  had  adventures  of  the  Crusonian  kind  — 
Tobago's  scenery  and  products  fit  Defoe's  wonderful  story. 

NEARLY  one  hundred  miles  to  the  windw^ard 
of  Saint  Vincent  lies  the  coralline  Barbados, 
a  flat  but  fascinating  isle,  almost  one  vast  sea 
of  sugar-cane,  at  least  a  hundred  thousand  of  its  106,000 
acres  being  in  a  high  state  of  cultivation.  Unlike  the 
majority  of  the  Lesser  Antilles,  Barbardos  is  mainly  level, 
without  good  harbors,  and  indefensible  as  a  military 
station;  but  at  the  same  time  it  is  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant of  Great  Britain's  possessions  in  the  Caribbean 
Sea.  It  has  been  English — and  so  thoroughly  English 
that  it  seems  like  a  bit  of  Old  England  taken  out  bodily 

392 


BARBADOS  AND  GRENADA     393 

and  dropped  down  into  the  Tropics — for  nearly  three 
hundred  years,  never  having  been  taken  by  a  foreign  foe. 

To  the  ''  windward  "  of  Saint  Vincent  it  is  situated,  the 
great  aerial  river  called  the  "  Trades "  flowing  west- 
erly toward  the  former  island  ;  yet  during  the  great  erup- 
tions from  the  Soufriere,  in  1812  and  1902,  it  was  covered 
with  a  thick  layer  of  ashes  from  that  volcano,  and  the 
atmosphere  above  it  was  obscured  for  days.  These 
trade  winds,  blowing  continuously  from  the  eastward  over 
a  vast  area  of  ocean,  keep  Barbados  in  good  health  all  the 
time,  and,  in  fact,  are  about  the  only  medicine  the  poor 
people  can  afford.  For,  people  are  poor  in  Barbados,  en- 
during a  poverty  such  as  is  hardly  known  elsewhere, 
even  though  the  island  is  rank  with  rum  and  sweet  with 
sugar.  There  are  quite  196,000  of  them,  nine-tenths  of 
the  number  black  or  nearly  so, — mostly  so,  in  fact, — or 
about  1200  to  the  square  mile.  As  the  total  area  of  the 
island  comprises  but  166  square  miles,  and  is  incapable  of 
expansion,  while  the  population  goes  on  recklessly  re- 
producing itself  regardless  of  the  consequences,  there  is 
certainly  a  reckoning  coming  in  the  future.  The  home 
government  has  sent  out  missionaries  to  labor  with  the 
inconsiderate  blacks,  but  without  avail ;  it  has  tried  to  get 
them  to  emigrate ;  but  the  proudest  boast  of  the  black 
Barbadian  is  that  he  is  a  "  B'adian  bawn  an'  bred,  sah," 
and  he  chooses  to  continue  in  his  native  island.  And 
while  the  birth-rate  goes  up,  the  great  and  only  staple, 
sugar,  persistently  goes  down,  carrying  wages  along  with 
it,  until  big,  brawny  blacks  are  going  begging  at  twenty 
cents  a  day,  for  males,  and  half  that  wage  for  females. 

Dear  old  Barbados,  with  its  spread  of  goodly  acres 
ringed  around  by  the  ever-smiling  sea,  its  palm-dotted 
landscape,  its  wind-milled  sugar  buildings,  using  ancient 


394        OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

processes  for  extracting  the  sweets  from  cane ;  its  old 
English  society  and  system  of  education ;  its  traditions 
of  century-long  loyalty  to  Britain ;  some  time — let  us 
hope  a  far  time — it  must  succumb  beneath  its  terrible  bur- 
den. For,  it  cannot  go  on  carrying  that  Old  Man  of 
Africa  on  its  shoulders  much  longer;  he  is  getting  too 
ponderous;  he  is  a  dead  weight  that  even  a  more  pros- 
perous colony  might  stagger  under. 

Still,  the  blacks  of  Barbados  are,  to  all  appearances, 
happy — probably  because  they  have  not  brain  enough  to 
be  otherwise.  The  "  divine  discontent  "  of  the  "  Buckra 
man  "  has  not  yet  found  lodgment  in  their  craniums.  All 
classes  there  nobly  cling  to  and  support  each  other, 
realizing  that  when  one  goes,  all  go,  to  the  bad 
together. 

Living  in  the  Tropics,  where  every  sort  of  fruit  neces- 
sary to  man's  subsistence  can  be  raised  with  least  labor, 
yet  the  natives  are  ever  close  to  starvation.  But  they  are 
not  afraid  of  it,  they  laugh  in  its  face — and  fight.  Yes, 
they  fight — not  among  themselves,  but  the  stranger  com- 
ing to  their  shores.  They  fight  and  they  beg,  both  lustily 
and  without  shame.  I  once  saw  a  body  of  boatmen  in 
Carlisle  Bay  fight  over  and  drown  a  passenger  whom  they 
were  trying  to  get  into  their  respective  boats.  They 
overturned  his  boat,  and  while  he  and  a  woman  drifted 
away  from  the  steamer,  wildly  waving  their  hands  and 
shouting  for  help,  they  continued  their  squabble,  until 
and  long  after  one  of  the  two  was  drowned. 

The  stranger  arriving  in  Bridgetown,  capital  and  only 
port  of  Barbados,  may  consider  himself  fortunate  if  he 
be  allowed  to  land  without  losing  some  portion  of  his  rai- 
ment, or  some  article  from  his  outfit.  Once  landed,  how- 
ever, he  will  desire  to  divest  himself  of  what  remains,  for 


BARBADOS  AND  GRENADA      395 

the  heat  is  something  terrific,  the  sun  is  truly  a  *' scorcher," 
in  Bridgetown,  and  rules  the  day  throughout.  But  there 
is  the  "  ice  house,"  a  combination  of  boarding-house, 
hotel,  and  cafe,  where  things  to  eat  may  be  had,  but  more 
especially  things  to  drink.  And  it  is  at  the  ice  house  that 
bibulous  man  quenches  his  raging  thirst,  perhaps  for  the 
first  time  imbibes  the  seductive  cocktail,  which  is  con- 
cocted by  experienced  "  druggists  "  after  a  recipe  handed 
down  from  past  generations.  It  is  then  stirred  with  a 
''  swizzle,"  a  pronged  stick  that  fits  into  the  bottom  of  a 
large  tumbler,  and  is  rotated  rapidly  between  one's  twO 
hands.  It  is  not  solely  the  rotation  of  the  stick  that  gives 
the  renowned  "  swizzle "  effect,  but  some  saponaceous 
quality  in  the  cambium  layer  of  the  wood.  Whatever  it 
is,  it  seems  to  ''  fill  the  bill  "  with  the  majority  of  ex- 
perimenters, and  generally  one  may  find,  among  the 
effects  of  the  returning  voyager  to  the  Antilles,  a  bunch 
of  swizzle-sticks. 

There  is  a  real  hotel  out  on  the  strand,  where  the 
smooth  sand-beaches  of  Hastings  invite  the  traveler  to 
rest,  and  as  the  only  railrocid  in  the  island  affords  a  most 
attractive  ride  to  the  highlands  of  "  Scotland,"  one  should 
by  all  means  include  both  in  his  itinerary. 

There  is  one  feature  of  Barbados  that  cannot  be  over- 
looked: its  substantial  air  of  permanent  residence.  The 
original  settlers  of  B'ados  were  not  all  good  men,  nor 
were  they  great.  Many  of  them,  in  fact,  were  sent  out 
here  much  against  their  inclinations,  and  of  some  it  may 
have  been  said,  as  of  others  that  came  to  Saint  Kitts: 
''  They  certainly  are  a  parcel  of  as  notorious  villians  as 
any  transplanted  this  long  tyme."  But,  when  they  got 
here,  they  stayed  here,  and  their  descendants  after  them, 
so  that  B'ados  and  its  "  Bims  "  are  more  in  the  nature  of 


396        OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

permanencies  than  any  other  island  and  its  people  in  the 
West  Indies.  The  Badians  used  to  claim  that  they  had 
the  longest  pedigrees,  and  their  cats  the  longest  tails,  of 
any  existing  people  and  cats  whatever.  This  statement, 
however,  must  be  taken  on  trust,  for  the  world  at  large  is 
not  sufficiently  interested  to  measure  either  the  tails  or  the 
pedigrees. 

One  thing  the  Bims  should  be  everlastingly  proud  of — 
though  really  they  don't  seem  to  be  aware  of  the  honor 
that  was  done  them — is  that  the  only  foreign  voyage  ever 
taken  by  one  George  Washington  was  to  their  island  of 
Barbados.  He  had  not  then  become  the  Father  of  his 
Country,  for  he  was  only  in  his  twentieth  year  when  he 
and  his  brother  Lawrence  came  to  Barbados  for  the  bene- 
fit of  the  latter's  health.  They  were  very  well  received 
by  the  landed  proprietors,  themselves  belonging  to  that 
class,  and  many  were  the  dinners  and  entertainments  that 
George  attended,  and  afterwards  admiringly  wrote  of 
in  his  diary.  Many,  that  is,  in  the  short  time  at  his  dis- 
posal ;  for  after  he  had  been  two  weeks  ashore — the  voy- 
age having  consumed  five  weeks — he  was  taken  down 
with  the  smallpox,  the  marks  from  which  he  carried  all 
his  life  in  that  face  which  has  become  so  familiar  to  all 
Americans. 

Even  at  the  time  of  Washington's  visit  the  planters 
were  becoming  embarrassed,  many  of  them  being  in  debt, 
as  he  records  in  his  journal.  *'  How  persons  coming  to 
estates  of  two,  three,  or  four  hundred  acres  can  want,  is 
to  me  most  wonderful,"  he  wrote  at  the  time;  but  that 
was  before  he  had  himself  entered "  into  possession  of 
Mount  Vernon,  which  was  bequeathed  him  by  Lawrence, 
who  died  a  few  months  after  his  return  from  Bar- 
bados. 


BARBADOS  AND  GRENADA     397 

It  is  the  country  region  of  Barbados,  more  than  the 
town  and  city,  that  fascinates  the  visitor  open  to  impres- 
sions of  the  sturdy  home-life  here  implanted.  It  will  be 
indeed  a  sad  day  for  civilization,  as  well  as  for  Barbados 
in  particular,  when  the  presumably  inevitable  breakup 
comes  to  pass.  For  here  are  homes,  in  every  sense  of  the 
word  they  are  homes,  albeit  tropical  ones,  which  are  the 
bulwarks  of  the  white  race  and  its  religion.  From  Far- 
ley Hall,  the  Governor's  residence,  to  the  home  of  the 
planter  of  moderate  income,  there  is  a  harmony  in  archi- 
tecture as  well  as  in  hospitable  sentiment,  that  suggests 
the  "  mother  country."  The  churches  and  chapels  of 
ease,  the  cemeteries,  the  parks  and  gardens,  all  carry  out 
the  suggestion  of  English  influence  in  the  higher  aims  of 
life.  Then  there  is  Codrington  College.  Have  you  ever 
seen  it? — that  seat  of  learning  nearly  two  centuries  old, 
with  its  environment  of  tropical  trees,  of  palms  holding 
their  golden  coronals  a  hundred  feet  aloft  and  circling 
about  the  great  stone  buildings? 

When  Mr.  Froude  was  in  Barbados  he  found  the  model 
habitation  in  the  home  of  Sir  Graham  Briggs,  "  perhaps 
the  most  distinguished  representative  of  the  old  Barba- 
dian families  " ;  a  man  of  large  fortune,  whom  it  w^as  my 
privilege  to  meet,  one  time,  at  Nevis,  where  I  was  his 
guest  for  a  night  and  a  day.  Speaking  of  Sir  Graham's 
magnificent  house  in  the  country,  Mr.  Froude  says,  after 
mentioning  the  rare  and  curious  things  there  gathered 
together :  *'  There  had  been  fine  culture  in  the  West 
Indies  when  all  these  treasures  were  collected.  The  Eng- 
lish settlers  there,  like  the  English  in  Ireland,  had  the 
taste  of  a  grand  race,  and  by-and-by  we  shall  miss  both 
of  them  when  they  are  overwhelmed,  as  they  are  likely 
to  be,  in  the  revolutionary  tide.     Sir  Graham  was  stem- 


398        OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

ming  it  to  the  best  of  his  abiHty,  and  if  he  was  to  go 
under  would  go  under  like  a  gentleman. 

'*  A  dining  room  almost  as  large  as  the  hall  had  been 
once  the  scene  of  hospitalities  like  those  which  are  cele- 
brated by  Tom  Cringle.  A  broad  staircase  led  up  from 
the  hall  to  long  galleries,  out  of  which  bedrooms  opened, 
with  cool,  deep  balconies  and  the  universal  green  blinds. 
It  was  a  palace  with  which  Aladdin  himself  might  have 
been  satisfied,  one  of  those  which  had  stirred  the  envying 
admiration  of  foreign  travelers  in  the  last  century;  one 
of  many  then,  now  probably  the  last  surviving  representa- 
tive of  Anglo-West  Indian  civilization.  Like  other  forms 
of  human  life,  it  has  had  its  day  and  could  not  last  for- 
ever. Something  better  may  grow  in  the  place  of  it,  but 
also  sornething  worse  may  grow.  The  example  of  Haiti 
ought  to  suggest  misgivings  to  the  most  ardent  philo- 
negro  enthusiast.  .  .  .  Hospitable,  generous,  splen- 
did as  was  Sir  Graham's  reception  of  me,  it  was  never- 
theless easy  to  see  that  the  prospects  of  the  island  sat 
heavy  upon  him." 

Yet  these  two,  both  Sir  Graham  and  his  distinguished 
guest,  have  gone  to  join  the  silent  host,  while  Barbados 
and  its  teeming  population  still  exists — and  casual  visi- 
tors (like  myself)  still  *'  point  a  moral  and  adorn  a  tale  " 
with  their  prospective  woes.  *'  I've  had  a  deal  of  trouble 
in  my  time,"  mused  the  old  man ;  *'  but  most  of  it  never 
happened!"  Perhaps  Barbados  will  never  collide  with 
its  expected  catastrophe ;  perhaps  sugar  will  go  up,  and 
blacks  will  cease  from  troubling;  so  the  end  may  never 
come !  Let  us  hope  so,  for  there  is  a  great  deal  worth  the 
while  in  isolated  Barbados,  and  should  it  be  wiped  out  a 
lamp  of  British  tropical  civilization  would  have  been  ex- 
tinguished. 


BARBADOS  AND  GRENADA      399 

In  the  Carlisle  roadstead  of  Bridgetown  many  ships 
assemble,  at  times,  and  it  is  one  of  the  busiest  places  in 
the  West  Indies.  As  the  rendezvous  of  the  ships  of  the 
English  Royal  Mail,  and  a  port-of-call  for  the  Que- 
bec and  other  lines,  Bridgetown  is  easily  accessible,  as 
well  as  readily  left  when  the  time  comes  for  departure. 

Returning  to  our  route  of  travel  down  the  Caribbees, 
we  shall  find  in  the  islands  of  Grenada  and  the  Grena- 
dines the  exact  antitheses  of  B'ados  in  every  respect  of 
surface,  soil,  and  scenery.  The  Grenadines  begin  right  at 
the  door  of  Saint  Vincent  where  it  opens  south,  and 
stretch  away  for  sixty  miles  or  so,  sometimes  their  tops 
above  the  water  a  few  feet ;  sometimes,  like  Bequia  and 
Carriacou,  large,  cultivable,  and  habitable.  They  are  all 
interesting,  of  course ;  but  what  boots  it-  if  one  cannot 
reach  them  without  the  discomforts  of  a  sailing  voyage,  in 
stale  and  dirty  droghers  ? 

Best  of  all  and  richest  of  all  is  Grenada,  southernmost 
of  the  volcanic  Caribbees,  an  island  whose  history  has 
been  repeated  in  that  of  Dominica,  Martinique,  Saint 
Lucia,  and  Saint  Vincent.  Like  the  first  named  and  the 
last  two,  Grenada  is  British,  and  has  been  so  for  many, 
many  years.  It  is  said  to  have  been  bought  from  the 
Caribs,  originally,  by  the  French,  for  two  bottles  of  rum. 
After  the  rum  was  gone,  although  they  had  signed  a 
formal  treaty  with  the  keen-witted  Frenchmen,  the 
Caribs  made  war  to  recover  their  insular  paradise;  but 
in  the  end  were  defeated  and  driven  away,  never  to  re- 
turn. Their  last  "  jumping-ofif  place  "  is  shown  at  the 
north  end  of  the  island,  the  "  Morne  des  Sauteurs,"  or 
hill  of  the  leapers,  for  here  they  leaped  from  a  precipice 
into  the  sea  and  were  drowned. 

The  capital  of  Grenada  is  Saint  Georges,  a  town  astride 


400         OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

a  hog-backed  peninsula,  guarding  one  of  the  finest  har- 
bors in  the  chain,  occupying  the  crater  of  a  volcano  con- 
sidered extinct.  Since  the  "  bobbery  "  in  Saint  Vincent, 
however,  no  crater  and  no  volcano  is  held  to  be  more  than 
quiescent;  for  the  Soufriere  had  a  big  lake  in  its  crater 
and  yet  blew  it  off  into  steam  at  the  slightest  provocation. 

Saint  Georges  is  picturesque,  and  is  also  the  entrance 
gate  to  a  country  yet  more  so.  Had  I  space,  I  might  tell 
of  an  interior  region  of  terrestrial  delights :  a  crater  with 
a  blue  lake  in  its  bosom,  only  a  few  hours'  ride  from 
town;  of  forests  haunted  by  the  most  gentlemanly  and 
ladylike  monkeys  man  ever  hunted,  who  live  at  ease  in 
the  tree-tops,  descending  occasionally  to  deprive  their 
common  enemy  of  cacao,  bananas,  and  sugar-cane,  etc., 
etc.  But  the  delights  of  Grenada  are  those  of  Saint 
Vincent  and  Dominica — plus  the  monkeys. 

There  is  also  one  other  attraction — to  the  native — 
which  consists  in  the  beautiful  surplus  the  island  treasury 
contains,  at  the  end  of  each  fiscal  year!  Grenada  used 
to  have  a  deficit,  like  all  its  sister  islands ;  but  some  time 
ago  it  quietly  abandoned  the  sugar  cultivation,  to  which 
for  many  generations  it  had  been  chained,  and  began  the 
culture  of  cacao,  nutmegs,  and  all  kinds  of  spices.  It  is 
now  known  as  the  island  of  black  proprietors,  for  three- 
fourths  its  residents  are  individual  owners  of  estates, 
small  but  profitable,  from  which  they  ship  annually  great 
quantities  of  special  products.  I  will  not  give  the  statis- 
tics, because,  in  the  first  place,  I  abhor  them,  and  in  the 
second,  I  haven't  got  these  handy.  But  no  matter ;  none 
of  my  readers  wants  to  go  to  Grenada  and  engage  in  cacao 
cultivation,  and  thus,  perhaps,  be  the  means  of  depriving 
some  poor  "  black  proprietor  "  of  his  daily  chocolate. 
Truth  to  tell,  though,  there  are  worse  forms  of  solitary 


BARBADOS  AND  GRENADA     401 

confinement  than  isolating  one's  self  on  a  cacao  planta- 
tion, amid  scenery  that  is  grand  and  decorated  with  all 
the  "  frills  and  fancy  fixings  "  of  the  tropics.  And  Gre- 
nada is  a  tolerably  healthy  island,  too,  with  streams  of 
sweet  water,  forests  of  gum  and  liquid-amber,  fairly  good 
roads  to  the  country  districts ;  but  with  its  prospects  be- 
clouded (for  the  white  man)  by  that  horde  of  ''black 
proprietors." 

It  is  the  truth,  and  nobody  can  refute  it,  that  the  fairest 
islands  in  this  archipelago — in  fact,  all  the  islands  of  the 
West  Indies,  south  of  Cuba — have  been  practically  aban- 
doned to  the  black  man.  But  this  island  of  Grenada  has 
yet  a  white  man  at  the  helm — mark  that ! — and  so  long  as 
he  remains,  there  will  be  no  danger  of  a  lapse  into  condi- 
tions prevalent  in  Haiti.  British  officialdom  in  Grenada 
is  not  so  expensive  a  luxury  as  in  some  other  islands, 
though  it  is  the  seat  of  government  of  the  so-styled 
Windward  Islands,  consisting  of  itself,  Saint  Vincent, 
and  Saint  Lucia.  In  Grenada  the  colonial  secretary  re- 
ceives a  salary  of  only  $3000,  against  $4500  paid  the  ad- 
ministrator of  Saint  Vincent,  and  $6500  paid  the  same 
official  in  Saint  Lucia.  There  has  been  a  mighty  protest 
against  the  stipends  paid  these  strangers  in  the  West 
Indian  islands,  who  are  there  only  by  courtesy  of  the 
natives,  and  of  late  years  there  has  been  shown  a  ten- 
dency to  scaling  down  their  salaries.  Thus,  the  governor 
of  Barbados  gets  only  $14,500  now,  when  a  few  years 
ago  his  salary  was  $18,000,  which  is  more  than  most  of 
our  ambassadors  receive. 

It  may  come  as  a  surprise  to  some,  and  be  resented 
by  others,  to  be  told  that  Robinson  Crusoe,  the  hero  of 
the  great  eighteenth-century  story  of  adventure,  never 


402       OUR  WEST  INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

saw  the  island  of  Juan  Fernandez,  on  the  coast  of  South 
America.  Even  were  he  real  or  fictional,  the  scene  of 
his  adventures  was  not  there,  but  nearly  forty  degrees 
farther  north,  on  an  island  in  the  West  Indies.  And  had 
he  lived  till  this  time  he  might  find  himself  a  neighbor  of 
ours,  for  his  insular  domain  lies  only  five  hundred  miles 
to  the  southeast  of  our  newly  acquired  tropical  island, 
Puerto  Rico. 

Yes,  the  place  where  Defoe  wrecked  his  hero,  and 
where  for  twenty-five  years  or  so  he  lived  a  solitary  life,  is 
the  British  island  of  Tobago,  which  lies  about  twenty  miles 
from  Trinidad,  and  one  hundred  from  Barbados.  Can  I 
prove  it  ?  Most  assuredly,  and  out  of  the  narrative  itself. 
If  my  readers  have  not  forgotten  their  "  Crusoe,"  and  can 
remember  the  opening  scenes  of  his  adventures,  they  will 
recall  that  Robinson  ran  away  to  sea  when  he  was  quite 
young.  After  being  wrecked  on  the  coast  of  Africa  and 
living  for  two  years  as  a  Moorish  captive,  he  escaped  and 
finally  arrived  off  the  coast  of  Brazil.  A  great  gale  over- 
took his  vessel,  and  they  were  driven  before  its  fury  until 
— "  the  Storm  abating  a  little,  the  Master  made  an  Ob- 
servation and  found  that  he  was  in  about  eleven  Degrees 
(ii)  of  north  Latitude,  so  that  we  were  gotten  beyond 
the  coast  of  Guiana  and  beyond  the  river  Amazones,  to- 
ward the  river  Oroonoque  [Orinoco]  commonly  called 
the  Great  River." 

This  quotation  from  "  Crusoe  "  shows  the  approximate 
latitude  just  before  the  wreck  of  his  vessel,  and  totally 
precludes  the  supposition  that  he  could  by  any  means 
have  doubled  Cape  Horn  and  reached  the  island  of  Juan 
Fernandez,  forty  degrees  to  the  southward  of  his  last 
observation. 

There  is  no  doubt  whatever  that  Selkirk's  island  is  the 


BARBADOS  AND  GRENADA      403 

real  Juan  Fernandez,  for  he  was  left  there,  did  live  there 
four  years,  was  rescued  by  an  English  captain  of  repute. 
This  much  is  authenticated;  but  further  than  this,  and 
that  perhaps  his  yarn  suggested  the  Crusoe  story,  that 
island  has  no  connection  whatever  with  the  real  and  gen- 
uine "  Robinson  Crusoe."  And  after  all,  what  a  ridicu- 
lous story  it  is.  Defoe  had  never  been  at  sea — at  least,  not 
as  a  sailor — and  he  makes  poor  old  Robinson  do  all  sorts 
of  silly  things.  For  instance,  he  first  strips  him  of  all 
clothing  (at  the  time  of  the  wreck)  and  then  has  him  swim 
ashore  with  his  pockets  full  of  biscuits !  He  saves  a  chest 
full  of  fine  clothing,  yet  weeps  over  the  loss  of  all  his 
clothes ;  Man  Friday  was  well  acquainted  with  the  habits 
of  bears,  yet  there  never  were  bears  in  either  island;  he 
dresses  the  sweltering  Robinson  in  garments  of  goatskin, 
in  a  tropical  climate,  where  no  cloth^es  at  all  were  prefer- 
able; he  makes  him  carry  a  hand-saw,  a  broad-sword, 
two  big  guns,  a  hatchet,  brace  of  pistols,  etc.,  whenever 
he  goes  out  of  his  cave,  even  to  feed  the  goats;  he  has 
him  climb  up  into  a  tree,  '*  much  like  a  Firr,  but  thorny," 
where  he  sits  all  night  trembling  for  fear  of  wild  beasts, 
when  there  was  not  a  harmful  creature  on  the  island. 
But  he  is  true  to  nature  in  at  least  one  instance,  when 
Robinson,  real  sailorman  that  he  is,  finding  a  jug  of  rum 
in  the  cabin,  takes  a  "  bigge,  bigge  Dram,"  with  a  capital 
D,  to  be  sure. 

Imprimis,  then,  that  island  is  Tobago,  and  lies  ofif  the 
mouth  of  the  Orinoco,  within  sight  of  Trinidad,  as  it  lay 
when  it  got  in  the  way  of  Crusoe's  ship  and  brought  him 
temporarily  to  grief.  It  was  discovered  by  Columbus, 
in  the  year  1498,  but  was  not  inhabited  then,  and  the  first 
attempt  at  settlement,  by  white  people  from  Barbados, 
was  repulsed  by  Indians  who  had  come  over  from  Trini- 


404        OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

dad.  For  nearly  two  hundred  years  thereafter  it  was 
the  sport  of  whatever  nation  chose  to  take  a  hand  in 
its  affairs.  First  the  Dutch,  then  the  French,  then  the 
Enghsh  made  settlements  there,  only  to  be  driven  out 
with  slaughter. 

In  the  year  1632,  the  date  of  Crusoe's  birth,  200  people 
from  Holland  came  here,  but  were  driven  away  by  the 
savages.  In  1677  the  Dutch  again  attempted  to  live 
there,  but  were  set  upon  by  the  English  under  Sir  Tobias 
Bridges,  who  took  400  prisoners.  So  it  will  be  seen  that 
the  history  of  Tobago  and  probably  its  resources  were 
well  enough  known  at  the  time  Defoe  wrote  "  Crusoe," 
just  prior  to  the  year  1719.  As  late  as  1684  it  was  un- 
inhabited, and  by  treaty  between  France  and  England 
made  a  "  neutral  island,"  for  Indian  settlement,  and  to  be 
visited  by  white  men  only  for  food  and  water.  In  fact, 
an  ideal  residence  for  a  hero — a  desolate  but  fertile  island, 
teeming  with  all  the  bounties  of  nature,  and  upon  which 
the  foot  of  civilized  man  had  left  no  impress. 

To  conclude  these  historical  references  of  Tobago:  the 
island  in  1802  had  a  voice  in  the  election  of  Bonaparte, 
and  the  same  year  was  the  residence  of  John  Paul  Jones, 
the  gallant  privateer.  There  is  a  dispute  between  philolo- 
gists and  botanists  as  to  whether  Tobago  gave  its  name 
to  tobacco,  or  whether  it  was  derived  from  the  weed  it- 
self. It  has  been  said  that  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  got  his 
first  seductive  whifT  of  nicotiana  out  of  dried  leaves 
sent  from  Trinidad  and  obtained  in  Tobago;  though 
the  weed  was  introduced  in  Europe  long  before  his  time. 
The  plant  is  a  native  in  Tobago,  and  grows  well  there, 
as  well  as  all  the  products  of  the  tropics.  The  climate 
of  the  island  is  tropical,  situated,  as  it  is,  but  eleven 
degrees  north  of  the  equator,  but  not  altogether  healthy. 


BARBADOS  AND  GRENADA     405 

A  mountainous  and  forest-covered  island,  its  fertile 
soil  is  but  partially  cultivated,  though  there  are  many  val- 
leys covered  with  sugar-cane  which  yield  prolifically. 
Tobago  is  about  1 14  square  miles  in  area,  with  a  total  pop- 
ulation of  less  than  18,000,  most  of  the  inhabitants  being 
descendants  of  the  freed  negro  slaves,  and  very  few  white 
people  living  here.  There  are  but  two  towns  on  the 
island,  the  larger  of  the  two,  Scarborough,  the  capital, 
situated  on  a  broad  bay,  having  about  a  thousand  inhabit- 
ants. There  is  no  hotel  here,  and  but  an  indifferent 
boarding  house,  where  "  all  the  luxuries  of  the  season  " 
are  conspicuous  by  their  absence. 

Shall  I  produce  further  proof  in  support  of  my  asser- 
tion that  the  real  "  Crusoe's  Island  "  lies,  not  in  the  South 
Pacific,  but  in  the  Caribbean  Sea,  within  six  days'  voyag- 
ing of  New  York?  Well,  then  let  me  cite  another, 
though  modern,  hero  of  literature,  Charles  Kingsley, 
who,  in  his  "At  Last,  A  Christmas  in  the  West  Indies," 
declares :  "  Crusoe's  Island  is  almost  certainly  meant  for 
Tobago ;   Man  Friday  had  been  stolen  in  Trinidad." 

When  I  read  that,  I  determined  to  go  there  myself.  I 
took  a  copy  of  the  book  along,  and  not  only  covered  the 
ground  entirely,  but  actually  lived  as  Crusoe  lived  two 
hundred  years  before.  I  had  my  hut  by  the  seaside,  my 
camp  in  the  forest,  my  **  poll  parrot,"  and  my  hammock 
under  the  palms.  I  had  everything,  almost,  that  Crusoe 
had,  and  a  great  deal  more  than  he ;  for  much  has  been 
discovered  since  he  flourished.  I  had  no  Man  Friday, 
in  Tobago;  but,  a  few  months  before  going  there,  I  had 
lived  with  the  Caribs  of  Dominica  and  Saint  Vincent,  the 
only  descendants  of  the  tribe  to  which  he  belonged. 

Tobago  is  a  beautiful  island,  with  tropical  forests,  in- 
teresting birds,  and  a  fine  climate.     The  scenery  almost 


4o6       OUR  WEST  INDIAN  NEIGHBORS 

exactly  fits  the  story,  and  I  used  my  camera  in  obtaining 
mementos  of  my  visit.  It  is  comparatively  accessible, 
and  the  language  spoken  there  is  our  own.  To  reach  it, 
take  steamer  for  Barbados  or  Trinidad,  and  transfer  to 
a  smaller  craft  which  plies  among  the  islands.  Its  in- 
habitants, who  are  mostly  of  African  descent,  know 
nothing  of  Robinson  Crusoe,  probably  owing  to  the  fact 
that  their  ancestors  were  brought  there  long  after  he  left 
the  island. 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

TRINIDAD,  AND   THE   ISLANDS'   RESOURCES 

Southernmost  of  the  West  Indies  —  English  for  two  hundred 
years  —  An  expensive  government  —  Port  of  Spain  and  the 
botanic  gardens  —  Forestal  attractions  of  Trinidad  —  Sir 
Walter  Raleigh  and  the  things  he  saw  in  Trinidad  —  The 
story  he  told  Queen  Elizabeth  —  Why  he  lost  his  head  — 
Why  he  deserved  his  fate  —  His  description  of  the  great  pitch 
lake  —  How  he  missed  becoming  a  millionaire  —  Excursions 
in  the  Gulf  of  Paria  —  Islets  and  caves  near  the  Boca  —  As 
to  the  future  of  the  islands  —  Old  and  new  times  —  A  con- 
trast—  Coolies  and  John  Crows  —  The  numerous  fruits  of 
the  West  Indies  —  Where  crown  land  can  be  obtained  — 
Area  and  population  of  the  West  Indies. 

TRINIDAD,  an  island  lying  between  the  tenth 
and  eleventh  degrees  of  north  latitude,  may 
be  called  the  sovithernmost  of  the  West  Indies; 
but  properly  speaking,  it  really  pertains  to  South  America, 
for  its  physical  characteristics,  its  fauna,  and  its  flora  are 
continental,  and  not  insular.  At  some  time,  quite  remote, 
it  was  probably  cut  oiT  from  the  northeast  coast  of  South 
America,  from  which  it  is  now  separated  by  two  straits. 
These  channels  of  turbulent  waters  were  first  seen  by 
Columbus  in  1498,  when  he  was  on  his  third  voyage  to 
America.  He  called  the  island  Trinidad,  after  the  holy 
Trinity,  having  made  a  vow  previously  to  sighting  its 
mountains  that  he  would  so  name  the  next  land  he 
discovered. 

407 


4o8        OUR  WEST  INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

Toward  the  end  of  that  third  voyage  Columbus  imag- 
ined himself  drawing  near  some  sub-tropical  inferno, 
for  he  had  sailed  farther  southward  than  on  any  previous 
voyage,  and  was  within  ten  degrees  or  so  of  the  equator. 
Reasoning  from  what  he  had  read  in  the  books  of  specu- 
lative philosophers,  he  expected  to  find  all  the  vegetation 
parched  by  the  heat,  and  the  inhabitants  of  such  lands  as 
he  hoped  to  discover  black  as  jet,  from  continued  ex- 
posure to  a  tropical  sun.  Reasoning  thus,  he  was  not 
alarmed  at  the  heat  which  opened  the  seams  of  his  ships 
and  drank  up  the  contents  of  his  water-casks,  for  it  was 
no  more  than  he  expected. 

As  he  approached  the  land  he  argued,  according  to  an 
old  historian  of  his  voyages :  "  The  earth  is  not  round, 
after  the  form  of  a  ball  or  an  apple,  but  rather  shaped  like 
a  pear  as  it  hangeth  on  the  tree ;  and  this  region  is  that 
which  possesseth  the  supereminent  or  highest  part  there- 
of, nearest  unto  heaven.  Insomuch  that  he  contended 
the  earthly  paradise  to  be  situated  in  the  tops  of  those 
three  hills,  which  the  watchman  saw  out  of  the  topcastle 
of  the  ship;  and  the  outrageous  stream  of  fresh  waters 
which  did  so  violently  issue  out  of  the  Gulf  of  Paria  and 
strive  so  with  the  salt  water,  fell  headlong  from  the  sum- 
mits of  said  mountains." 

Columbus  entered  the  Gulf  of  Paria,  which  lies  be- 
tween Trinidad  and  the  mainland  of  South  America, 
through  the  southern  channel,  which  he  named  the  Boca 
del  Serpiente,  or  the  Serpent's  Mouth;  and  the  northern 
exit  of  the  gulf  into  the  Caribbean  Sea  (which  he 
reached  after  coasting  the  western  shores  of  Trinidad) 
he  called  the  Boca  del  Drago — Mouth  of  the  Dragon  — 
because  both  were  filled  with  rushing,  roaring  waters  that 
nearly  overwhelmed  his  ships 


TRINIDAD   AND    OTHERS  409 

Ninety  years  elapsed  before  the  Spaniards  colonized 
Trinidad,  and  they  held  it  two  hundred  years,  or  until  it 
capitulated  to  the  British  under  General  Abercromby,  in 
1797.  Ever  since  this  last  date  it  has  been  in  British 
hands,  having  been  confirmed  to  them  by  the  treaty  of 
Amiens,  in  1802,  and  is  now,  as  is  well  known,  one  of 
their  most  important  possessions,  with  its  commanding 
situation  off  the  Orinoco's  mouth,  at  the  northeast  tip  of 
South  America.  Fifty-five  miles  in  length  by  forty  in 
breadth,  with  an  area  of  about  1750  square  miles, 
Trinidad  is  ten  times  as  large  as  Barbados,  yet  has  only 
eighty  thousand  more  inhabitants.  But  much  of  its  ter- 
ritory is  mountainous,  and  some  is  swampy  and  rnala- 
rious,  unlike  clean-skirted,  breezy  Barbados,  with  nearly 
all  its  acres  available.  About  two  hundred  thousand 
acres  are  under  cultivation,  devoted  mainly  to  sugar-cane, 
cacao,  cocoanuts,  spices,  and  tropical  fruits  in  general, 
and  as  the  island  has  an  equatorial  range  of  fruit  and 
vegetable  products,  with  rich  soil  in  unlimited  tracts,  and 
a  climate,  in  the  highlands,  not  inimical  to  white  people, 
it  should  prove  attractive  to  settlers. 

Great  and  varied  as  are  the  resources  of  Trinidad, 
yielding  a  revenue  of  nearly  $4,000,000  annually,  the 
island  does  not  progress  as  one  might  expect  it  to, 
for  its  expenditures  more  than  keep  pace  with  its  income. 
This,  however,  is  not  to  be  wondered  at,  when  its  official 
list  is  scanned,  with  a  governor  at  $25,000  per  annum,  an 
attorney-general  at  $7500,  a  colonial  secretary  and  a  di- 
rector of  public  works  at  $6000  each,  and  fifteen  6ther 
public  *'  servants  "  with  salaries  ranging  from  $3000  to 
$5000  apiece.  Think  of  a  relatively  insignificant  country 
like  Trinidad,  with  less  than  half  a  million  inhabitants, 
and  most  of  these  blacks,  coolies,  and  colored  people, 


4IO       OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

living  from  hand  to  mouth,  paying  their  "  governor  "  a 
salary  half  as  large  as  that  received  by  the  President  of 
the  United  States!  And  the  Trinidadians  wonder  why 
they  cannot  save  up  something  for  a  rainy  day,  and  why 
their  debt  has  continued  to  grow  and  grow,  until  it  is 
now  many  million  pounds ! 

When,  only,  as  Mr.  MacNish,  of  Jamaica,  truly  says, 
the  British  West  Indians  become  wise  enough  to  pay 
salaries  commensurate  with  services  rendered,  and  ship 
back  to  England  their  high-priced  and  purely  ornamental 
officials,  may  they  enter  upon  the  paths  of  progress.  But 
they  cannot  save  anything  from  their  revenues  so  long  as 
the  "  wise  sharps  of  Downing  Street  "  have  the  handling 
of  them.  So  long  as  there  is  a  tempting  revenue  to  ex- 
ploit, like  that  of  Trinidad,  just  so  long  will  these  non- 
working,  non-producing,  non-^esidents  absorb  the  whole 
of  it — and  a  little  more. 

The  governor's  residence,  in  the  beautiful  botanic  gar- 
den, near  Port  of  Spain,  is  not  **  half  bad  "  for  an  exile 
from  the  mother  country  to  be  quartered  in,  with  or  with- 
out a  salary  attached,  and  the  domiciles  of  the  under 
officials  are  by  far  the  best  in  the  colony.  That  may  not 
be  saying  too  much,  for  Port  of  Spain  is  not  the  hand- 
somest city  in  the  universe,  nor  the  most  attractive.  It 
has  bravely  wrestled  with  many  natural  disadvantages,  in- 
cluding the  shallow,  filth-contaminated  harbor,  w^here 
steamers  of  any  size  have  to  anchor  miles  from  the  shore. 
It  has  been  burned  to  the  ground  several  times,  but  has 
not  suflFered  from  storms  to  any  extent,  being  below  the 
hurricane  line.  It  need  not  be  affirmed  of  Port  of  Spain 
that  it  is  hot,  perhaps  unhealthy,  for  it  stands  with  its  feet 
in  hot  water  all  the  time,  in  the  northeastern  bight  of  the 
great  Gulf  of  Paria.    It  is  a  busy  place  withal,  as  well  as 


TRINIDAD  AND  OTHERS  411 

an  ambitious  one,  forty  steamers  making  calls  here,  going 
north  among  the  islands  and  to  the  States,  east  to  Vene- 
zuela, south  to  Orinoco  towns,  and  to  the  chief  ports 
of  the  continent.  This  British  port  is  the  first  of  impor- 
tance near  the  Orinoco's  many  mouths,  and  draws  from 
the  great  river  stores  of  gold,  hides,  woods,  and  medicinal 
plants.  There  is  a  line  direct  from  the  United  States,  as 
well  as  another  that  calls  here  on  the  way  to  Demerara, 
while  small  steamers  make  the  wonderful  voyage  up  the 
Orinoco  as  far  as  navigation  permits. 

Hot,  but  not  notoriously  unhealthy.  Port  of  Spain  sim- 
mers calmly  in  the  tropical  sun  without  complaint,  takes 
its  siesta  at  the  noon  hours,  wakes  up  toward  evening,  be- 
coming as  active  as  a  temperature  of  eighty-five  or  ninety 
will  permit,  and  settles  down  to  silence  only  after  the  mid- 
night hour.  Its  people  are  famous  for  their  gambling 
propensities,  horse-racing,  and  even  athletic  games,  like 
cricket  and  base-ball.  They  like  to  picnic  and  pleasure- 
seek,  in  the  beautiful  forests  back  of  town  amid  the 
mountains,  where  are  many  bowers  of  beauty  and  water- 
falls uncounted. 

But  the  forests  of  Trinidad  are  too  vast  for  us  to  essay 
them.  Canon  Kingsley  almost  filled  a  book  about  them 
thirty  years  ago.  Get  it — ''At  Last,  a  Christmas  in  the 
West  Indies  " — and  if  you  read  it  you  will  have  ac- 
quired much  information  on  tropic  vegetation.  Kingsley 
was  an  enthusiast,  and  that  trip  down  the  islands,  with 
Trinidad  as  his  principal  tarrying-place,  was  his  first  to 
the  tropics — also  his  last,  more's  the  pity.  The  first  time 
I  looked  upon  Port  of  Spain  was  one  Fourth  of  July,  nine 
years  after  Kingsley's  visit,  and  there  were  many  people 
who  remembered  him  and  his  exuberant  enthusiasm ; 
some  few  who  took  his  criticisms  much  to  heart,  but  none 


412       OUR  WEST  INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

who  dissented  from  his  estimate  of  Trinidad's  attrac- 
tions. 

It  would  be  unpardonable  in  me  not  to  make  mention 
of  the  greatest  Englishman  who  preceded  Kingsley  to 
Trinidad,  one  Walter  Raleigh,  who  first  sailed  into  the 
Gulf  of  Paria  in  1595 ;  who,  like  Columbus,  made  note  of 
the  "  oisters  "  growing  on  the  mangrove  trees,  and,  un- 
like Columbus,  was  kind  to  the  natives  whom  he  met 
ashore.  He  was  then  in  search  of  El  Dorado,  the  Gilded 
King," who  was  said  to  have  his  residence  on  an  island  far 
up  the  Orinoco ;  and  though  he  did  not  find  him,  nor  even 
catch  a  glimpse  of  his  wonderful  retreat,  he  informed 
Queen  Elizabeth,  on  his  return,  that  he  not  only  had  an 
interview  with  the  Gilded  One,  but  that  he,  at  sight  of 
her  portrait,  had  fallen  in  a  faint  from  sheer  admiration. 
Inasmuch  as  the  great  Bess  had  "  a  face  that  would  stop  a 
clock,"  as  the  saying  is,  she  swallowed  the  story  entire, 
and  richly  rewarded  Sir  Walter  for  his  fib.  He  was  com- 
pelled to  swallow  it  himself,  twenty-two  years  later,  when 
that  ''  wise  idiot,"  King  James,  sent  him  back  to  verify 
the  yarn.  But  it  stuck  in  his  throat,  and  on  his  return 
the  King  felt  constrained  to  cut  off  his  head  to  get  it  out. 
At  least,  he  deprived  poor  Sir  Walter  of  his  caput,  os- 
tensibly on  account  of  having  fought  the  Spaniards  at 
Trinidad  when  it  was  more  in  accord  with  British  policy 
at  that  moment  to  keep  the  peace. 

To  cruise  in  Spanish  waters  and  invade  a  Spanish  col- 
ony without  getting  into  trouble  was,  as  King  James  well 
knew,  quite  the  impossible  thing — and  that  is  why  he  sent 
Sir  Walter  out  to  Trinidad  on  his  second  adventure.  He 
lost  his  son,  young  Sir  Walter,  in  the  fight  with  the 
Spaniards;  he  lost. his  reputation,  and  finally  he  lost  his 
head — all  which  must  have  been   rather  disquieting  to 


TRINIDAD  AND  OTHERS  413 

Sir  Walter;  and  it  must  have  convinced  all  who  were 
cognizant  of  the  facts  that,  in  the  words  of  our  great 
professional  humorist,  "  when  in  doubt  one  should  always 
tell  the  truth." 

Certain  wealthy  Americans  should  erect  a  monument 
to  Raleigh,  provided  they  be  penetrated  with  the  grati- 
tude they  should  be  penetrated  with,  because  of  his,  the 
first,  mention  of  that  wonderful  Pitch  Lake  which  is  to 
be  found  right  where  he  discovered  it  more  than 
three  hundred  years  ago,  at  about  sixty  miles  distance 
from  the  present  Port  of  Spain.  Many  a  description 
of  it  has  been  written  since  his  was  penned,  but  none, 
perhaps,  that  describe  it  better :  "  We  came  to  anchor  at 
Tierra  de  Bri,  short  of  the  Spanish  Port  some  ten 
leagues.  This  is  a  piece  of  land  some  two  leagues  long 
and  a  league  broad,  all  stone  pitch  or  bitumen,  which 
riseth  out  of  the  ground  in  little  springs  or  fountains, 
and  so,  swimming  a  little  way,  it  hardeneth  in  the  air  and 
covereth  all  the  plain.  There  are  also  many  springs  of 
water,  and  in  and  among  them  many  fish.  .  .  .  There 
is  that  abundance  of  stone  pitch  that  all  the  ships  of  the 
world  may  therewith  be  laden  from  thence ;  and  we  made 
trial  of  it  in  trimming  our  ships  to  be  m.ost  excellent 
good,  and  melted  not  with  the  sun  as  the  pitch  of  Nor- 
way, and,  therefore,  for  ships  trading  with  the  south  parts 
very  profitable." 

Trinidad's  deposit  of  asphalt  has  most  assuredly  proven 
very  profitable  to  the  syndicate  that  works  it,  paying  the 
government  $60,000  per  annum  for  the  privilege,  on  a 
forty-years'  lease ;  and  that  "  all  the  ships  of  the  world 
may  therewith  be  laden  from  thence,"  is  as  true  now  as  it 
was  in  good  Sir  Walter's  time.  Verily,  it  seemeth  bot- 
tomless, he  might  have  said,  for  the  more  the  exploiters 


414        OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

take  out  of  it  the  more  they  may,  some  occult  force  con- 
tinually pressing  it  up  from  beneath.  A  million  tons,  in 
all  probability,  have  been  taken  out  of  the  ''  lake,"  and 
millions  more  remain. 

Alas  that  Sir  Walter  told  that  fib  about  the  Gilded  One  1 
for  it  profited  him  nothing  to  romance  in  that  manner 
to  a  vain  old  spinster  who,  by  accident,  wore  a  crown. 
What  opportunities,  forsooth,  he  threw  away !  One  of 
the  first  to  exploit  the  Trinidad  asphalt,  and  also  first  to 
smoke  and  appreciate  tobacco,  he  should  have  formed 
a  company,  issued  unlimited  stock — and  exploited  the 
stockholders.  He  might  thus  have  lived  a  life  of  ease, 
and  died  an  honored  millionaire ;  but,  he  never  formed 
a  trust !  No  wonder  he  lost  his  head.  Some  there  be,  in 
sooth,  who  think  he  richly  deserved  his  fate  for  twice 
turning  the  cold  shoulder  to  Dame  Fortune. 

A  substance  similar  to  the  Trinidad  '*  pitch  "  occurs  in 
Barbados,  where  it  is  called  "  manjak";  but  not  in  such 
quantities,  being  found  in  shallow  beds  only  a  few  feet  in 
width ;  while  the  lake  at  La  Brea  contains  more  than  a 
hundred  acres,  and  is  practically  bottomless.  A  small 
steamer  runs  down  from  Port  of  Spain  once  a  day,  and 
the  Quebec  Line  excursionists  are  usually  taken  thither; 
but  it  should  be  stipulated  that  the  trip  be  made  so  as 
to  arrive  at  the  landing-place  early  in  the  morning, 
as  the  heat  of  mid-day  is  something  almost  beyond  belief. 
So,  too,  are  the  odors  which  greet  one  there,  as  well  as 
the  sights.  In  fact,  the  pitch  lake  must  be  regarded  as  a 
monstrosity,  solely,  and  viewed  in  that  light,  one  will  be 
willing  to  endure  discomforts  in  getting  a  glimpse  of  it. 

Several  interesting  excursions  offer  from  the  Port,  be- 
sides the  trip  to  La  Brea,  as,  for  instance,  to  the  islands  in 
the  Gulf,  which  are  extremely  picturesque,  some  of  them 


TRINIDAD  AND  OTHERS  415 

occupied  as  summer  watering  places,  where  the  bathing, 
boating,  and  fishing  are  excellent.  Then  there  is  the  won- 
derful cave  at  Huevos,  the  abode  of  the  Guachero  Bird, 
or  Diablotin,  a  species  of  goatsucker,  by  some  highly 
esteemed  as  a  boiibouchc,  and  which  may  be  found  by  the 
thousands.  It  was  first  described,  I  think,  by  Humboldt, 
and  is  particularly  mentioned  by  Kingsley,  whose  guide 
to  the  cave  was  yet  living  a  few  years  ago.  The  islands 
near  the  Dragon's  Mouth,  like  Monos  and  Huevos,  are 
washed  by  the  waves  of  swift  currents,  worn  into  caves 
and  draped  with  vines,  but  have  beaches  of  fine  sand  in 
cliff -sheltered  bays. 

Stretching  away  westward  from  the  Boca  may  be  seen 
the  point  of  Paria,  a  bit  of  South  America's  mainland,  be- 
yond which  are  the  once-famous  Pearl  Islands,  Margarita 
and  others,  whence  Vespucci  and  Ojeda,  in  1499,  and 
after  them  many  other  voyagers,  drew  large  supplies  of 
pearls,  from  which  they  made  their  fortunes.  These 
islands  are  difficult  to  reach,  and  moreover  can  hardly  be 
claimed  as  West  Indian,  since  they  are  biit  detached  por- 
tions of  the  great  continent,  at  the  northern  coast  of 
which  our  voyage  comes  to  an  end. 

A  final  word  as  to  the  prospects,  resources,  the  possible 
future,  of  these  islands  seems  imperative  in  this  connec- 
tion. There  is  no  denying  the  fact  that,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  Cuba  and  Puerto  Rico,  possibly  of  Trinidad,  the 
West  Indian  islands  have  retrograded  in  the  past  century. 
They  have  grown  poorer,  the  British  islands  especially, 
their  population  blacker,  hence  they  are  less  desirable  as 
places  of  residence  for  white  folk.  Time  was  when 
there  were  vast  plantations  of  cane,  which,  converted  into 
sugar  at  $150  to  $200  per  ton,  and  rum  at  $1.50  to  $2.00 


4i6        OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

per  gallon,  supported  in  idleness  a  luxurious  aristocracy, 
who  lived  in  London  or  at  the  capitals  of  Europe  and  al- 
lowed their  agents  to  manage  their  estates.  So  it  fell  out 
finally,  after  the  slaves  were  freed,  and  after  beet-sugar 
competition  brought  down  the  prices,  that  most  of  the 
sugar  estates  became  the  properties  of  those  thrifty 
agents,  or  "  attorneys  " ;  but  eventually  even  these  sharp 
lawyers  failed  to  make  them  pay. 

Sugar  is  just  as  sweet,  and  rum  as  insidious,  as  ever; 
but  demand  has  fallen  with  sharp  competition.  The  im- 
portation of  coolies  to  supply  the  places  of  lazy  negroes 
has  not  proved  entirely  successful ;  though  these  former 
now  swarm  in  Trinidad,  and  form  a  most  picturesque 
element  of  the  population.  In  fact,  the  coolies  in  the 
country  and  the  "  John  Crow  "  scavengers  at  the  Port 
add  greatly  to  the  attractive  features  of  Trinidad.  The 
first  were  imported,  under  contract,  to  work  nine  hours 
per  day  at  tenpence  per  diem;  the  latter  are  natives  and 
work  for  nothing;  but  both  support  themselves  mainly 
on  the  refuse  of  the  island. 

In  some  of  the  islands  the  attention  of  proprietors  has 
been  turned  from  sugar-cane  to  the  raising  of  fruits  and 
the  "  small  cultivations,"  such  as  cacao,  bananas,  nut- 
megs, and  spices  generally;  limes,  oranges,  pine-apples, 
and  arrow-root.  It  is  in  these  ''  cultivations  "  that  young 
men  going  to  the  islands  with  the  intention  of  establish- 
ing homes  therein  will  find  their  fortunes — if  at  all ;  and 
it  will  be  through  the  failure  of  the  islands  to  continue 
sources  of  revenue  to  their  present  possessors  that  they 
will  consent  to  their  passing  into  the  hands  of  a  contingu- 
ous  country  capable  of  making  them  tributary  to  her 
greatness,  and  at  the  same  time  raising  them  to  pros- 
perity. 


TRINIDAD  AND  OTHERS  417 

All  sorts  of  fruit — perhaps  it  is  needless  to  mention — 
may  be  raised  in  those  favored  islands,  as  the  grape,  date, 
fig,  orange,  lime,  lemon,  sapadilla,  pine-apple,  shaddock, 
mango,  cocoanut,  citron,  guava,  plantain,  banana,  star- 
apple,  pomegranate,  plum,  cherry,  mammie,  custard-ap- 
ple, avocado  pear,  tamarind,  mangosteen,  chrimoya,  water 
lemon,  bread-fruit,  sugar-apple,  sour-sop,  acajou, — their 
name  is  legion.  At  ordinary  elevations  all  the  vegetables, 
such  as  eddoes,  yams,  peas,  parsnips,  cabbage,  beans, 
spinach,  radish,  egg-plant,  beet,  celery,  maize,  cassava, 
sweet  potato,  mountain  cabbage  (from  the  palm),  pump- 
kin, melons,  ochra,  etc.,  etc.  There  are,  in  addition,  many 
special  products,  like  coffee,  cacao,  cinnamon,  nutmeg, 
ginger,  vanilla,  pimento,  clove,  aloes,  arrow-root,  bread- 
nut,  tea,  tobacco,  etc.,  which  either  cannot  be  raised  in 
the  United  States,  or  else  only  in  certain  restricted  areas ; 
though  in  the  West  Indies  everywhere  prevalent,  accord- 
ing to  altitude  and  the  character  of  the  soils. 

Lands  for  settlement  and  cultivation  are  available  in 
Cuba,  Santo  Domingo,  nearly  all  British  islands  except 
Barbados,  and  in  some  few  of  the  English  isles  crown 
lands  may  be  obtained  in  small  or  large  tracts,  as  in 
Dominica,  Saint  Vincent,  Tobago,  and  Trinidad.  Domin- 
ica has  a  particularly  choice  tract  of  land,  about  60,000 
acres,  known  as  the  Layou  Flats.  This  has  but  recently 
been  opened  to  settlement,  by  the  construction  of  a  good 
road  from  Roseau,  and  already  quite  a  number  of  young 
Englishmen  have  availed  themselves  of  the  low  price  of 
ten  shillings  per  acre  to  establish  themselves  as  planters 
of  limes,  coffee,  cacao,  and  tropical  fruits  in  general. 

It  happens  by  a  fortunate  chance  that  both  crown  lands 
and  good  climate  are  found  in  Dominica,  and  also  good 
government,  while  the  population,  though  very  dark  com- 


4i8       OUR  WEST   INDIAN   NEIGHBORS 

plexioned    in    the    main,    contains    some    very  vigorous 
examples  of  Old  England's  best  stock,  who  have  been 

transplanted  to  a  tropical  clime,   where  they  thrive   to 
perfection. 

Here  are  the  islands  of  the  West  Indies,  proper,  w^ith 
their  respective  areas  and  populations  given  approx- 
imately, from  latest  statistics : 

Area  in  Popu- 

square  miles.  lation. 

Cuba    45,872  1,573,800 

Bahamas 5,450  66,400 

Jamaica    4,000  740,000 

Haiti    9,240  1,240,000 

Puerto    Rico 3,600  950,000 

Santo  Domingo «...     20,590  600,000 

Danish   West    hidies — St.    Thomas,    Santa 

Cruz,  and   St.  John 142  33-000 

French    Islands — Guadeloupe,    Martinique, 

and   smaller  islands 1,100  360,000 

Leeward    Islands — Antigua,    St.    Kitts   and 
Nevis,     Montserrat,     Virgin     islands, 

Dominica 641  130,000 

Windward    Islands — St.    Lucia,    St.    Vin- 
cent,   Grenada,    Grenadines 510  136,000 

Barbados    166  198,000 

Trinidad  and  Tobago 2,000  290,000 

Dutch      Islands  —  Curagao,       Saba,        St. 

Eustatius    436  52,000 


THE  END 


INDEX 


•Abaco,  Great  and  Little,  20, 
22 

Aboriginal  West  Indians, 
342,  et  seq. 

Aborigines  of  the  Bahamas, 
9;  of  Cuba,  39;  of  His- 
paniola,  177 

Acklin  Island,  parrots  of,  19 

Adelantado,  B.  Columbus, 
210,  12,  18 

African  ancestors  of  Haiti- 
ans, 170;  birds  and  grains, 
315;  fetichism,  in  Haiti, 
167 

Agassiz,  Prof.  A.,  on  Car- 
ibbean Sea,  3 

Agouti,  the  inoffensive,  235 

Agriculture,   tropical,   239. 

Agua  Alta,  river,  Jamaica, 
123 

Aguadilla,  Puerto  Rico,  249 

Agueynaba,  Cacique,  Puerto 
Rico,  241 

Air  plants,  abundance  of, 
88 

Almendares  River,  58 

Ajoupa,  or  forest  camp,  338 

Albemarle,  Duke  of,  in 
Jamaica,  147;  Duke  and 
Duchess  of,  203,  204. 

Alger's  "Spanish- American 
War,"  43 

Alpargatas,     Moorish     San- 

.  dais,  91 

Alto  Cedro,  station  of,  Cuba, 
31,87 


Amazon  Island,  or  Madinino, 

203 
Amazones,    legends    of    the, 

302 
Americanized  Spaniard,  the, 

62 
America's  oldest  city,  XIII., 

209 
Anana,     or    pineapple,     first 

found  in  Bahamas,  18 
Andros  Island,  flamingoes  of, 

19 
Anegada,  Island  of,  266 
Antigua,    Island    of,    XIX., 

306,  307 
Antillean  Outposts,  2 
Arawaks,    Indians    of    West 
'    Indies,  22 
Area  and  resources  of  islands, 

415,  418 
Arecibo,  Puerto  Rico,  249 
Aristocracy,    The,    of    Haiti, 

172,  174,  175 
Armadillo,  The,  in  West  In- 
dies, 236 
Arrows,     Bay    of,     Samana, 

205 
Asturians,  in  Cuba,  97 
Atares,  Castle  of,  Cuba,  27 
Atlantis,   The  Lost,  theories 

of,  Z 
Atlantis   and    Antillean   leg- 
ends, 268 
Atrocities  in  Haiti,  170 
Aves  Island,  Caribbean  Sea, 

353 
Aybonito,  Puerto  Rir-o,  253 
Aztecs,   compared  with  Car- 

ibs,  346 
Azua  and  sugar  country,' 207 


420 


INDEX 


B 


Bagley,  Ensign,  and  compan- 
ions, 28 

Bahamas,  attractions  of,  o; 
population  of,  6,  8;  statis- 
tics of,  6;  number  and  ex- 
tent of,  1,  2,  4;  when  dis- 
covered, 1 ;  farming  in  the, 
17 ;  peculiar  productions  of, 
18;  important  islands  of, 
20,21 

Bahia  Honda,  24,  113 

Baracoa,  Port  of,  Cuba,  29, 
35 

Barbados,  Grenada  and  To- 
bago, XXV.,  392;  popula- 
tion of,  393 

Barboles,  Marquis  de,  228 

Barbour,  Sir  David,  K.  C.  S. 
I.,  133,  135 

Barbuda,  Island  of,  309,  316 

Basse  Terre,  Guadeloupe, 
322,  323;  Saint  Kitts,  292 

Batabano,  Gulf  of,  114 ;  town 
of,  52,  71 

Bath,  Springs  of,  Jamaica, 
143 

Bayamo,  Cuba,  51 

Beauharnais,  Husband  of 
Josephine,  366 

Bejucos,  or  bush-ropes,  88, 
99 

Bellamar,  Caves  of,  80 

Bermudas,  compared  with 
Bahamas,  16 

Bimini  Cays,  "Fountain  of 
Youth,"  20 

Bird,  A  new,  discovered  by 
Author,  305,  335 

Birds  of  the  Bahamas,  19 

"Blackbeard,"  or  John  Teach, 
11,  12,  13 


Black    Caribs,    St.    Vincent, 

379,  380 
Black    King    of    Haiti,    see 

Christophe. 
"Black   Republic,"    The,    by 

Saint  John,  166 
Blacks,  of  Jamaica,  147,  148, 

49 
Blacks,    Colony    of,    at    Sa- 

mana,  205 
Blake,   Sir  Henry,   Jamaica, 

127 
Blockade  runners,  in  Nassau, 

14 
Blockhouses,  Spanish,  82 
Blue    Mountain     Peak,    Ja- 
maica, 121,  138,  139 
Bobadilla,  rival  of  Columbus, 

194,  213 
Boca  del  Agua  (Bog  Walk) 

River,  123,  142 
Bohio,  or  native  hut,  75,  89, 

99;  the  Puerto  Rican,  232 
Boiling  Lake,   of  Dominica, 

329,  336,  311 
Bombas,   Parque   de,   Puerto 

Rico,  250 
"Bonaparte's    Cocked    Hat," 

270 
Booby  Island,  Story  of,  293 
Botanic  Garden,  St.  Vincent, 

391 
Bottom,   Town   of,   in   Saba, 

270 
Boyer,    President    of    Haiti, 

171,  76 
Brea,  La,  Trinidad,  413,  414 
Bridgetown,  Barbados,  394 
Briggs,   Sir  Graham,  Barba- 
dos, 397 
Brimstone  Hill,  Saint  Kitts, 

292 


INDEX 


421 


Buccaneer,  Lay  of  tlie  Last, 
353 

Buccaneers,  of  the  Bahamas, 
11;  of  Cuban  Coast,  119;  in 
Jamaica,  123;  of  Tortuga, 
157,  158,  159;  resorts  of, 
266. 

Bull-fights  and  Cock-pits, 
247 

Bull  Hunting,  Barbuda,  309 


C 


Cabanas  Fortifications,  26 
Cacocum,  Station  of,  86 
Caguas,  Puerto  Rico,  254 
Caicos  Islands,  21 
Caimanera,  Cuba,  37 
Camagiiey,  Hotels  of,  84 
Camisa,  The  Cuban's,  91 
Camp  in  a  Cave,  My,  383-88 
Canarreos,     Archipelago     of, 

52 
Cane    River,    Falls    of,    Ja- 
maica, 144 
Caney,  El,  43,  Fight  at,  44, 

47 
Cangrejos,  Puerto  Rico,  28 
Cannibalism   in   Haiti,    161, 

C6,  67,  170 
Cannibals,  343,  346,  etc. 
Caparra,  Old  city  of,  240,  249 
Capital    and    Colonists,   VL, 

108 
Capromys,     or     Utia,  where 

found,  19 
Caribbees,  Chain  of  the,  268 
Carib  Country,  379,  387 
Caribg  of  Antigua,  307,  308 ; 

of  Dominica,  343  et  seq.; 

of  Saint  Vincent,  377,  79 

81,88 


Carlisle    Roadstead,    Barba- 
dos, 399 
Casa    Blanca,   P.    de   Leon's 

castle,  247 
Casa  de  Colon,  Sto.  Domingo, 

217 
Casas,  Bartolome  de  las,  219 
Case   a   vent,   hurricane  cel- 
lar, 366 
Cassareep,  or  pepper-pot,  389, 

90 
Cassava,  Tubers  of,  389 
Castries,  Harbor  of,  371,  72 
Cat  Island,  Bahamas,  18 
Cathedral  of  Havana,  64 
Cathedral  of  Sto.  Domingo, 

220 
Cauto  River,  Cuba,  50,  51,  87 
Cayey,  Puerto  Rico,  254 
Caymans,    group    of    islands 

bet.  Cuba  and  Jamaica 
Cayo  Srjf]ith,  Santiago,  49 
Ceballos,  Colony  of,  83 
Cedar,  Logs  of,  85 
Ceiba,  or  silk-cotton,  15 
Cervera  and  squadron,  40,  41 
Chaifee,  General,  at  El  Can- 
ey, 47 
Champ    de    Mars,    Port    au 

Prince,  152,  154 
Charlotte         Amalia,         St. 
Thomas,  255,  58,  59,  61,  66 
Chateaubellair,   St.   Vincent, 

378 
Christian,  King  of  Denmark, 

263 
Christophe,  black  king,  156, 

57,  59,  169,  171,  76 
Churches   of   Sto.   Domingo, 

219 
Chrysotis  Augusta,  The,  348 
Cibao  Region,  Sto.  Domingo. 
207,  208 


422 


INDEX 


Gibber,  comedian,  tale  of,  204 

Ciego  de  Avila,  Town  of,  82 

Cienfuegos,  City  and  Harbor 
of,  52 

"City  of  the  Gentlemen,"  Sto. 
Domingo,  182 

Clive,  Wilfred,  death  of,  340 

Coamo,  Baths,  Puerto  Rico, 
252,  53 

Cobre,  Mines  of,  49;  Virgin 
of,  49,  50 

Cockpit    Country,    Jamaica, 
143 

Codringtons,   The,   Barbuda, 
308,   310 

Codrington  College,  Barba- 
dos, 397 

Coffee  Country  of  Cuba,  38 

Colardeau,  M.  St.  Felix,  323, 
325;  Madam,  325 

Colonial  System,  French, 
320 

Colonies  in  Cuba,  113,  114, 
115 

Colonist,  The,  in  Cuba,  111, 
112,  113,  116,  117 

Columbaria  of  San  Juan, 
245 

Columbus,  Bartholomew,  210, 
211,  212,  218;  ashes  of 
Christopher,  64,  65,  66,  191, 
et  seq. ;  in  chains,  213; 
Christopher  in  Cuba,  23, 
29,  30;  landfall  of,  in 
Bahamas,  18,  21;  flagship 
of,  156 ;  discovers  Jamaica, 
123;  first  voyage  to  Haiti, 
etc.,  210;  discovers  Puerto 
Rico,  246;  in  search  of 
Amazons,  302 ;  discovers 
Trinidad,  407,  408;  Diego, 
son  of  Christopher,  193 


Concepcion  de  la  Vega,  182, 

206 
"Conchs,"    in    the   Bahamas, 

13 
Conquistadores,  The  Spanish, 

159,  178,  221 
Constant        Spring       Hotel, 

Jamaica,  127 
Coolies,  Pay  of,  in  Jamaica, 

133 
Coral  Bay,  Harbor  of  Saint 

John,  258 
Cortes,  Hernando,  at  Santi- 
ago, 42;  Trinidad,  52 
Costumbres,        Habits,        of 

Cubans,  103,  etc. 
Crater  of  Mount  Misery,  293 
Creoles   of   Martinique,   363, 

365 
Creole  Dialects  of  Haiti,  170 
Cringle,    Tom,    in    Jamaica, 

126 
Cristo  Station,  and  fruits  of, 

89 
Crooked  Island,  Bahamas,  21 
Croton  eleutheria,  18 
Crown  Lands  in  W.  Indies, 

417 
Crusoe,  Robinson,  in  Tobago, 

401,  402,  et  seq. 
Crusoe's  Island,  where  situ- 
ated, 401,  et  seq. 
Cruz,  Cape,  52 
Cuba    Railway,    73,    et    seq., 

110 
Cuban,  as  author  knew  him, 

90,  et  seq. 
Cubana.  Female  Cuban,  The, 

105,  106 
Cubano,  The,  91, 105 
Cudjoe,     Jamaica     Maroon, 

145 


INDEX 


423 


Culebra,  U.  S.  Naval  Sta- 
tion bet.  P.  Rico  and  St 
Thomas. 

Curaqao,  Coast  of  Venezuela, 

281,  282,  283,  284 


D 


Daiquiri,  Coast  of  Cuba,  38 
Danish  Islands  of  West  In- 
dies, 255  et  seq. 
Davis,    General,    on    Puerto 

Eico,  232 
Deer      Shooting,      Barbuda, 

313,  314 
DeGraaf,        Governor,        of 

Statia,  276,  279^ 
Denmark,     Negotiations     of 

U.  S.  with,  262 
Desirade,  Island  of,  326 
Dessalines,      Haitien      ruler, 

159,  169,  171,  176 
Devaux,      Colonel,     captures 

New  Providence,  14 
Dia  de   Gracias,  Thanksgiv- 
ing, 234 
Diablotin,  Little  Devil,  327, 

328,  348 
"Diamond   Rock,"   the   ship, 

373 
Dias  de  fiesta,  or  feast  days, 

234 
Diaz,  Miguel,  finds  gold,  211 
Disappearing  rivers  in  Cuba, 

70,  71 
Dominica,    Island    of,    327, 

XXI. 
Dominica,  lands  in,  417 
Don    Diego    Columbus,    215, 

216 
^'Don  Jorge  Juan,"  32 


Don  Luis,  grandson  of  Chris., 
194 

Dorado,  El,  the  Gilded  One, 
412 

Douglass,  Erederick,  in 
Haiti,  152 

Dragon's  Mouth,  The,  408 

Drake,  Sir  Francis,  54,  220 

Dutch  Islands  in  West  In- 
dies, XVII. 

<'Dutch  Loan,"  The,  Sto.  Do- 
mingo, 190 

Dutch  sailors  of  Saba,  273 


E 


Editors  of  Puerto  Rico,  224 
Edwards,  Bryan,  historian  of 

Jamaica,  130 
Eleuthera,     Island     of     Ba- 
hamas, 18,  21 
Elizabeth,  Queen,  412 
Encomiendas,  of  Indians,  179 
English  rule  in  W.  Indies,  7 
Epitaphs,   quaint,    in   Nevis, 

299,  300 
Escondido,    Hidden   Harbor, 

Cuba,  37 
Evelyns,  the  hospitable,  380 
Exuma    Sound    in    Bahama 

archipelago,  21 
Eyre,  Governor,  143 


Fallow  deer,  Barbuda,  309 
Farinaceous  Foods  of  Caribs, 

389 
Faustin      I.,      Emperor     of 

Haiti,  172 


424 


INDEX 


Fer  de  lance.  The,  Mar- 
tinique, 360 

Ferdinand  VII.,  statue  of,  66 

Ferriere,  la,  wonderful  castle 
of,  157 

Fig  Tree  Church,  Nevis, 
299 

Filibus teres,  The,  158 

Flamingoes  in  the  Bahamas, 
19 

Foreigner  in  Haiti,  The,  174, 
175 

Forests  of  Cuba,  85,  87; 
Guadeloupe,  325;  of  Do- 
minica, 330,  338 

Fortune  Island,  Bahamas, 
21 

Fountain  of  Youth,  Bim- 
ini  Cays,  20 

Fraser,  Alex.,  death  of,  380, 
381 

French  Islands  of  West  In- 
dies, 318 

Froude,  J.  A.,  132,  397 

Fruits,  native,  of  the  Ba- 
hamas, .  . ;  of  Puerto  E-ico, 
235;  of  West  Indies,  417 

Fuerza,  old  fort  in  Havana, 
67 

G 

Galleons,  treasure-laden,  118, 

198 
Gallows    Bay,    treasures    of, 

266 
Gallows  Point,  Jamaica,  125 
Game       birds       and       fish, 

Jamaica,  147 
Game  preserve,   a   fine,  309, 

312 
Garden  River,  Jamaica,  143 
Gardens  of  the  Queen,  51 
Garrote,  The,  in  Havana,  68 


Geffrard,    President,    Haiti, 

172,  176 
Georgetown,  St.  Vincent,  378 
Geysers,  of  Dominica,  336 
Gibara,  town  and  port  of,  29 
Gibaro  of  Puerto  Rico,  231 
Gilded  One,  The,  El  Dorado, 

413,  414 
"Glass  Windows,"  Eleuthera 

Island,  21 
Gloria,    La,    Cuban    colony, 

115 
"Goat  without  Horns,"  The, 

167,  169 
Gold,    first    American,    207, 

208   212 
Gold  in  Puerto  Rico,  240,  241 
Gold   washing   in    West   In- 
dies, 240,  241 
Gomez,      General      Maximo, 

101,  187 
Gonaive,  Island  of,  155 
Gordon  Town,  Jamaica,  138 
Gosse,  P.   H.,  naturalist,  in 

Jamaica,  147 
Grande    Terre,    Guadeloupe, 

318,  322 
Grenada,  Island  of,  399,  401 
Grenadines,  The,  399 
Gritos,    political,    in    Cuba, 

101 
Guacanaybo,  Gulf  of,  50 
Guachero   Bird,   The,  Trini- 
dad, 415 
Guadeloupe,  Island  of,  XX., 

317,  et  seq. 
Guaguas,      or      Omnibuses, 

Havana,  60 
Guanahani,  Island  of,  18 
Guanajay,  excursion  to,  70 
Guanica,  Port  of,  250 
Guantanamo,  Bay  of,  36 
Guarico,  Port  of,  Haiti,  156 


INDEX 


425 


Guinea  Fowl,  wild,  shooting, 

311,  316 
Guines,  Cuba,  soil  of,  112 


H 


Habanilla,  Falls  of,  52 
Haiti,  routes  to,  150 
Haiti-Santo    Domingo,    area 

of,  etc.,  104 
Haiti,     great    resources     of, 

163,  165,  etc. 
Haitien,  Cape,  155,  156 
Haitian    Soldier,    The,    154, 

155 
Haitians,    acuteness   of    the, 

160 
Haitians,   The,   according  to 
St.  John,  167,  169,  etc. ;  pe- 
culiarities of  the,  171,  172, 
173,  174 
Hamilton,    Alex.,    birthplace 

of,  298,  301 
Hammocks,  Indian,  18 
Harbor  Island,  20 
Havana,  Harbor  of,  53 
Heureaux,   President  Ulises, 

184,  et  seq. 
Hidalgo's     Pass,     Sto.     Do- 
mingo, 181 
High  Woods,  The,  325 
Higueyans,  The,  207 
Hispaniola,  when  settled,  164, 

177 
Hobson,  Lieut.,  in  Cuba,  41 
Hole    in    the    Wall,    Abaco, 

Bahamas,  20,  22 
Holguin,  railroad  to,  86 
Homenaje,  Castle  of  the,  189 
Hood,  Sir  Samuel,  371 
Hooker,  Sir  Joseph,  332 
Hormigueros,  Village  of,  250 
House,  how  to  make  a,  231 


Huevos,  Island  of,  415 
Humboldt,      Alexander,     on 

Caribbees,  4 
Humming-bird's  antics,  293 
Hurricane    as    a    scapegoat, 

229 
Hurricane  Hill,  sunken  city 

of,  297 
Hyppolite,    Pres.,    of    Haiti, 

152,  160,  176 


Icterus  Oberi,  bird  discovered 

by  author,  305 
Iguana,  flesh  of  the,  236,  334 
Imray,  Dr.  John,  304,  332 
Indians,  The  Carib,  XXII. 
Ingenio,  or  sugar-mill,  30,  75, 

113 
Insects,  poisonous,  of  Cuba, 

116 
Institute  of  Jamaica,  146 
Isabella,  first  American  city, 

210 
Isle     of     Pines,     52,     114; 

Americans  in,  71. 


Jacmel  and  Port-au-Prince, 
Haiti,  150 

Jamaica  exports,  imports, 
revenues,  etc.,  135 ;  laborers 
and  taxpayers,  133;  impor- 
tance of,  to  United  States, 
129;  counties  of,  etc.,  128; 
distance,  etc.,  from  U.  S., 
128,  129;  natural  resources 
of,  122;  mountain  views 
and  features  of,  121 

James,  King,  and  Raleigh, 
412 


426 


INDEX 


Jardin  des  Plantes,  Mar- 
tinique, 360,  366 

Jesus  del  Monte,  Cuba,  56 

John  Crow  Mountains, 
Jamaica,  144 

John  Crows,  or  buzzards, 
416 

Josephine,  Empress,  birth- 
place of,  365,  366 

Jucaro-San  Fernando  rail- 
road, 83 

Judgment  Cliff,  Jamaica,  144 


Kettle  Hill,  45 
"Knights     of     St.     Henry," 
Haiti,  171 

Kingsley's     "West     Indies," 

405,  411 
Kingston,  Jamaica,  121,  126 
Kingstown,  St.  Vincent,  390 


Labat,  Pere,  295,  323,  327 
Laborers,  The  Cuban,  102 
"Ladder,"  The,  of  Saba,  272 
"Lake  of  Fire,"  near  Nassau, 

17,  20 
Lake  Dwellers  of  Venezuela, 

283 
Landfall     of     Columbus     in 

Bahamas,  18 
Lands  available  in  West  In- 
dies, 416,  417 
Larcom,  Lucy,  talented  poet- 
ess, 335 
Las  Casas  and  the  Spaniards, 

93 
Las  Guasimas,  43 
Laudat,  Hamlet  of,  333 
Lawton,  General,  in  Cuba,  47 


Leclerc,  General,  and  sol- 
diers, 156 

Leeward  Islands,  306 

Leger,  Minister  J.  N.,  on 
Haiti,  159,  172 

Lemonade,  the  Duke  of,  172, 
175 

Leogane,  Gulf  of,  Haiti,  155 

Leon,  Ponce  de,  in  Sto.  Do- 
mingo, 207 

I^wiston,  Station  of,  Cuba, 
87 

Lianas  and  Lialines,  88 

Lime  Culture,  Montserrat 
Island,  304 

Little  Devil,  or  Diablotin, 
.327,  328 

Lloyd,  Commodore,  reference 
to,  124 

Lodge's  "War  with  Spain," 
43 

Long  Island,  Bahamas,  21 

Loup  Garou,  or  were-wolf,  of 
Haiti,  166 

Ludlow,  General,  at  El 
Caney,  47;  on  Cuban  cli- 
mate, 115 

Luquillo  Eange,  Puerto  RicG, 
242 

M 

MacNish,  Mr.,  on    Jamaica, 

133,  134,  135, 136,  410 
Madruga,  Springs  of,  81 
Mahogany,  forests  of,  85,  86 
"Maine,"  The,  wreck  of,  27 
Maisi,  Cape,  Cuba,  35,  36 
Maja,  or  Cuban  boa,  116 
Maman-lois,  Vaudoux  priest- 
ess, 166 
Manchioneal   Bay,   in   "Tom 
Cringle's  Log,"  144 


INDEX 


427 


Man  Friday,  Crusoe's,  403 
Manjak,  or  Barbados  Pitch, 

414 
Manopilon,  on  Nipe  Bay,  31, 

32 
Manzanillo,    Cuba,    51;    Bay 

of,  180 
Margarita,  Island  of,  415 
Mariel,  Port  of,  70 
Marianao,  suburb  of  Havana, 

69 
Marmalade,  Duke  of,  Haiti, 

172 
Maroons,    The,    of    Jamaica, 

144,  145 
Martinique,         Island        of, 

XXIII. 
Matanzas  to  Havana,  round- 
trip,  74;  city  of,  78;  bom- 
bardment of,  harbor  of,  28 
Mather,       Cotton,      treasure 

story,  198,  et  seq. 
Mayaguez,  Puerto  Rico,  249 
Mayari  River,  Cuba,  33 
Maynard,     Lieut.,     captures 

Blackbeard,  13 
"Merrimac,"  The,  Cuba,  41 
Miles,    General,    in    Puerto 

Rico,  250 
Military  rule  in  Puerto  Rico, 

248 
Milk  River  Baths,  Jamaica, 

144 
Millot,  vale  of,  Haiti,  156 
Milne,    James,    St.    Vincent, 

391 
Minas,    Las,    Cuban    colony, 

115 
Mole    San    Nicholas,    Haiti, 

155 
Mona    Passage    and    Island, 
.     249 


Moneague,  Jamaica,   143 

Mongoose,  The,  in  Jamaica, 
125,  126 

Monkeys  of  Saint  Kitts,  294, 
295 

Monos,  Island  of,  415 

Montbars  the  Exterminator, 
316 

Monte  Christi,  Sto.  Domingo. 
180,  181 

Montego  Bay,  Jamaica,  120, 
127 

Montserrat,  Island  of,  303 

Monte  Tina,  highest  Antil- 
lean  peak,  165 

Moore  Town,  Jamaica,  Mar- 
oon's capital,  145 

Morant  Bay,  Jamaica,  143 

Morgan,  Sir  Henry,  123,  125 

Morne  Calabasse,  Mar- 
tinique, 361;  Balisier,  361, 
368;  Rouge,  361;  Ronde, 
St.  Vincent,  380,  383,  390; 
of  Roseau,  Dominica,  332; 
St.  Andrew,  St.  Vincent, 
391 

Morro  Castle,  Havana,  67; 
Puerto  Rico,  244,  245;  of 
Santiago,  39,  40,  41 

Mountain  climbing  in  West 
Indies,  287 

Mountain  Lake,  Dominica, 
343 

Mount  Misery,  Saint  Kitts, 
286 

Mountains  of  the  Caribbee 
chain,  286,  287 

Mountains,  of  Dominica,  330 

Munson  Line  to  Cuba,  32,  33, 
35 

Myiarchus  Oberi,  new  bird, 
335 


428 


INDEX 


N 


Napoleon,  first  wife  of,  364, 

365,  366 
Naranjo,  Port  of,  Cuba,  29 
Nassau,    description    of,    15; 

New    Providence,    pirates 

of  12;   hotels  of,   distance 

from  U.  S.,  16 
Natural  history  of  Jamaica, 

147 
Negro  pioverbs,  West  Indies, 

148,  149 
Nelson,     Lord,     married     in 

Nevis,  298,  299 
Nevis,    beautiful    island    of, 

297 
New  Providence,  captured  by 

Americans,        14 ;        when 

founded,  10 
Nicholls,   Dr.,   of   Dominica, 

332    337 
Nipe,'Bay  of,  Cuba,  31,  32 
Nipe  Bay,  railroad  to,  87 
Nissage-Saget,         President, 

153,  172,  176 
Nord    Alexis,    President    of 

Haiti,  1903,  176 
Nouet,  Governor,  324 
Nuevitas,  Harbor  of,  29 ;  rail- 
road to,  84 


O 


Obeah,  sorcerers  of,  145 
Obispo  Street,  Havana,  62 
Ocampo,   navigator,   23 
Ojeda,  Spanish  explorer,  415 
Olla  podrida,  pepper-pot,  390 
Orange,  Port  of,  30;  Port  of, 

'Statia,  276 
Orchids    in    Cuban    forests. 


Ovando,  The  atrocious,  213 
Oviedo,  historian,  216 
Oxen,  Cuban,  how  yoked  and 

worked,  103,  104 
Ozama  River,  Sto.  Domingo, 

212,  214 


Pagerie,       la,       Josephine's 

home,  365 
Paisano,  The  Cuban,  92,  98, 

112 
Pajarito,  hamlet  in  Sto.  Do- 
mingo, 194 
Palisadoes,  Jamaica,  121 
Palma,  Don  Tomas  Estrada, 

51,  101,  102 
Pan  de  Cabanas,  Cuba,  24, 
Pan  de  Mariel,  Cuba,  24 
Panama,    The    sack    of,    by 

Morgan,  158 
Pantalones,  The  Cuban,  91 
Papa-lois,  high  priest  of  the 

Vaudoux,  166 
Papiamento,  patois  of   Cur- 
acao, 282 
Paradise   Peak,    St.    Martin, 

316 
Parasitic  plants,  Cuba,  88 
Parque   Isabel,   Havana,    60, 

67 
Parrot,  The  imperial,  348 
Parrots,  of  the  Bahamas,  19 
Patois,  spoken  in  Haiti,  170 
Pelee,    Montagne,    326,    354, 

355,    357,    361,    367,    368; 

eruption  of,  367,  369 
Penn.      Admiral,      captures 

Jamaica,  123 
Pensions,    Cuban,    how    ab- 

sorbed>  100 
Pepper-pot,  or  cassareep,  389 


INDEX 


429 


Pesos,  The  itching  palm  for, 

223 
Petion,     Haitian     president, 

171,  176 
Phipps,      Sir     William,      in 

Jamaica,  147 ;  and  treasure, 

199,  et  seq. 
Photographing      in      Puerto 

Eico,  223,  226 
Pimento  groves  of  Jamaica, 

146 
Pinar  del  Kio,  71,  112,  114 
Pineapple,  where  first  found, 

18 
Pink  Pearls,  in  Bahamas,  13 
Pinzon,  Vicente  Yanez,  227 
Pirates  in  Cuba,  84;  of  the 

West  Indies,  11,  13 
Pitch    Lake,    Trinidad,    413, 

414 
Pitons,  The,  St.  Lucia,  374 
Pitt,  William,  on  reciprocity, 

130,131 
Planters,  Hospitable,  of  Saint 

Kitts,  288 
Plowing    in    Cuba    with    a 

stick,  78 
Pointe  a  Pitre,  Guadeloupe, 

321 
Pdnce,  City  of,  Puerto  Kico, 

250 
Ponce    de    Leon    in    Puerto 

Rico,  227,  240 
Ponce  de  Leon's  castle,  246 
Poey,  Senor,  on  Cuban  fishes, 

70 
Port  Antonio,  Jamaica,  121, 

127,  145 
Port-au-Prince,    Haiti,    151, 

152,  154,  155 
Port  de  Paix,  Haiti,  and  Tor- 

tuga,  157 


Port    Royal,    Jamaica,    121, 

122,  123,  124 
Port  of  Spain,  Trinidad,  410, 

411 
Porter,  Admiral  D.  D.,  on  St. 

Thomas,  260 
Portland     Parish,     Jamaica, 

143 
Prado  of  Havana,  59,  60 
Presidents,    various,   of   Sto. 

Domingo,  186 
Products,    varied,    of    Cuba, 

111 
Proverbs     of     the      Blacks, 

Jamaica,  148,  149 
Puerto  Plata,  Sto.  Domingo, 

197,  et  seq.,  204 
Puerto  Principe,  City  of,  29 
Puerto    Ricans,    ungrateful, 

230;  typical,  the,  231 
Puerto  Rico  as   author  first 

saw  it,  222;  natural  feat- 
ures of,  237 
Puerto  Riqueno,  traits  of  the, 

225 
Punta,   The   Point,   Havana, 

68 
"Purchas       his       Pilgrims," 

quoted  from,  93 


Q 


Quadrupeds,    indigenous,    of 

the      Bahamas,      19;       of 

Puerto  Rico,  235 
Quebec  Line,  The,  414 
"Queen  of  the  Antilles,"  110, 

120 
Queen's    Staircase,    Nassau, 

17 


430 


INDEX 


R 


Habacca,  Carib  Indian,  388 
Railroad,     Havana-Santiago, 

IV.,  73 
Railroads   in   Sto.  Domingo, 

189 
Raleigh,  Sir  Walter,  404,  412, 

414 
Reciprocity    between    U.    S. 

and  Jamaica,  129,  et  seq. 
Redonda,  Rock  of,  286 
Registry    of    Nelson's    mar- 
riage, 299 
Remains  of  Columbus,  195 
Resources      and      area      of 
islands,  415,  418;  of  Cuba, 
109 
Restos,  or  remains  of  Colum- 
bus,  191,  et  seq. 
Revolutionist,  A  Cuban,  99 
Richmond    estate,    St.    Vin- 
cent, 380,  382 
Rio  Cobre,  Jamaica,  123,  142 
Rio   del  Oro,   or  Yaqui,   St. 

Domingo,  180 
Rio  Piedras,  P.  Rico,  248 
Roads       and       byways       of 

Jamaica,  137 
Roaring  River,  Jamaica,  146 
Roddam,  The  steamer,  371 
Rodney,  Lord,   sacks  'Statia 
Island,  276,  277;  statue  of, 
Jamaica,  142 
Rogers,     Capt.     Woods,     in 

Bahamas,  11,  13 
Roosevelt,     Lieut.     Col.,     in 

Cuba,  43,  45,  46,  48 
Roseau,  Dominica,  town  of, 

331,  333 
Rough  Riders,  The,  43,  47 


Royal  Mail  steamers.  West 
Indies,  128,  150 

Royal  Road  of  Puerto  Rico, 
252 

Roxelane,  Riviere,  Martin- 
ique, 361 

Ruined  cities  of  Mexico,  210 

Rulers  of  Haiti,  171,  172, 175, 
176 

Rum  Cay,  21;  wreckers  of, 
22 

Rutland  Vale,  St.  Vincent, 
391 

Ryswick,  Peace  of,  158 


S 


Sacrifices,  Human,  in  Haiti, 

166,  167,  168,  169 
Saba,    northernmost    Carib- 

bee  Isle,  269 
St.  Ann,  Parish  of,  Jamaica, 

143,  146 
St.    Parts.,    Island    of,    315, 

316 
St.    Eustatius,    Volcano    of, 

277;    island,    275,    276,    et 

seq. 
St.  John,  Island  of,  257,  258; 

Sir  Spencer,  on  Haiti,  165, 

166,  167 
St.  Georges,  Grenada,  399 
St.    Kitts,    Nevis,    Montser- 

rat,  285,  et  seq. 
St.  Lucia,  Island  of,  369,  374 
St.  Martin,  Island  of,  316 
St.   Pierre,   Martinique,   356, 

357,    358,    360,    361;    de- 
struction of,  367,  370 
St.   Thomas,  Island  of,  258, 

259,  260,  261,  262 


INDEX 


431 


St.  Vincent,  Island  of, 
XXIV.,  375 

Salee,  Kiviere,  Guadeloupe, 
318 

Salnave,  Haitian  President, 
172,   176    ' 

Salt  pans  in  the  Bahamas, 
21 

Salute,  first,  to  American 
flag,  279,  280 

Samana  Bay,  180,  205,  206 

Sampson,  Admiral,  report  be- 
fore Santiago,  40 

Sanchez,  Santo  Domingo, 
180 

Sandy  Bay,  St.  Vincent,  387, 
390 

Sandy  Point,  St.  Kitts,  292 

San  Juan,  43,  44,  45,  46;  in 
Puerto  Rico,  244 

Sannois,  estate  of,  365 

San  Salvador,  Bahamas,  18, 
21 

Sans  Souci,  Palace  of,  Haiti, 
156 

Santa  Barbara,  Town  of,  205 

Santa  Clara,  City  of,  81 

Santa  Cruz,  Island  of,  256, 
257 

Santiago,  City  of,  Cuba,  42, 
43,  et  seq. ;  arrival  at  by 
rail,  89;  de  los  Caballeros, 
179 ;  Province  of,  85 

Santo  Domingo,  natural  re- 
sources of,  178;  old  de- 
scription of,  216;  city  of, 
209,  et  seq. 

Savana  la  Mar,  Sto.  Do- 
mingo, 207 

Sayle,  Captain,  founds  New 
Providence,  10 

Schools  of  Puerto  Rico,  251 

Sea  of  Fire  near  Nassau,  20 


Sea  Gardens  of  Nassau,  19 
Sea    Treasure    off    Coast    of 

Sto.  Domingo,  197,  et  seq. 
Security  of  life  in  Cuba,  106 
Senoras,  senoritas,  106 
Serpent,  The,  Per  de  Lance> 

360 
Serpent's  Mouth,  The,  408 
Serpent  worshipers  of  Haiti, 

166,  167,  170 
Sevilla,       first       town       in 

Jamaica,  123 
Seward,  Secretary,  treats  for 

islands,  261 
Shafter,  General,  38,  44 
Sherman,    Rev.    Father,    on 

Puerto  Rico,  238 
"Sick  Lady  Cured,"  The,  204 
Sierra  de  Cristal  in  Cuba,  34 
Sierra  Maestra  of  Cuba,  51 
Siesta,  in  Cuba,  116 
Siffleur  montagne,  a  bird,  334 
Silk-cottons,  bulks  of  the,  88 
Silver,  barrow  loads  of,  259 
Simon     Sam,    President    of 

Haiti,  176 
Slavery  in  Haiti,  169,  170  ^ 
Slave    trade,    debate    on,    in 

1775,  130,  131 
Sloane,       Sir       Hans,       on 

Jamaica,  147 
Soleil    Coucher,    or    Sunset 

Bird,  334 
Soltera,  A,  or  spinster,  105 
Sombrero,  Island  of,  315 
Soufriere,  Guadeloupe,  climb- 
ing the,  324;  crater  of  the, 
326;    the,    of    Montserrat, 
305;  the  petit,  338;  of  St. 
Lucia,  374;  of  St.  Vincent, 
375,  380;  camping  on  the, 
383,  387;  crater  of  the,  383; 


43^ 


INDEX 


eruption  of  the,  375,  380; 

Bird,     St.     Vincent,     384, 

385 
Soulouque,      "emperor"      of 

Haiti,  171,  172,  176 
Spaniard,  The,  in  history,  93 
Spaniards    in   the    Bahamas. 

10;  in  Cuba,  95,  96,  9'r" 
Spanish  Town,  Jamaica,  123, 

127,  192 
Sturges   family,    Montserrat, 

304 
Subterranean   Rivers,    Cuba, 

70 
Sucrerie,  la  Pagerie,  366 
Sugar  cane,  extent  of  culti- 
vation, 75, 113 
Sulphur     found     in     Saba's 

volcano,  275 
Sunset    Bird    of    Dominica, 

334,  335 
Surrender  Tree,  The,  44 
Swizzle-stick,  uses  of  the,  394 


Tanamo,  Port  of,  Cuba,  29, 
34 

Tasajo,  or  dried  beef,  99 

Tascher  de  la  Pagerie,  M., 
364,  365 

Teach,  John,  or  "Black- 
beard,"  11,  13 

Tertre,  Pere  du,  mention  of, 
327 

Three-iingered  Jack,  Ja- 
maica, 144. 

"Thunderbolts"  (celts)  in  tho 
Bahamas,  10 

Tobacco,  cultivation  of,  76 
113;  first  found  in  Baha- 
mas, by  Columbus,  18; 
Vuelto  Abajo,  70 


Tobago,    Island    of,    402,    et 
seq.;    history   of,   404;    re- 
sources of,  405 
Toledo  blades,  found  in  Sto. 

Domingo,  183 
Toledo,  Donna  Maria  de,  215 
Tories,  irruption  of,  in  Baha- 
mas, 13 
Torrecilla  de  Colon,  214 
Tortola,  Island  of,  266 
Tortuga,  buccaneer's  island, 

Haiti,  157 
Toussaint  I'Ouverture,  169 
Trade,  between  Jamaica  and 

U.  S.,  134 
Trade  Winds,  393 
Treasure-laden    galleons, 

where  sunk,  118 
Treasure,  sunken,  in  the  sea, 

202,  etc. 
Trembleurs,  the,  334 
Trinidad,  Cuba,  51 
Trinidad,  Island  of,  XXVL, 
407,  et  seq.;  area,  popula- 
tion, etc.,  409 ;  discovery  of, 
407,    408;     Columbus     in, 
408;   Pitch   Lake   of,   413- 
414;  salaries  paid  in,  409 
Trocha  ,  the,    of    Ciego    do 

Avila,  82 
Trollope,  Anthony,  331,  333 
Turkey,  origin  of  the,  237 
Turks'  Islands,  Bahamas,  21 
Turquino,  Rio,  50;  Pico,  50 
Turuqueira,  Guadeloupe,  317 


V 


United  Fruit  Company,  Ja- 
maica, 128,  145 

United  Railways,  of  Cuba, 
58,  71,  74 


INDEX 


433 


U.  S.  Government  in  Puerto 

Eico,  229 
United  States,  importance  of, 

to  Jamaica,  129 
Utia,  of  Bahamas,  19 


Van  Home,  Sir  William,  31 
Vaudoux,  or  voodoo,  in  Haiti, 

161,  166,  167,  168,  170 
Vedado,  baths  of,  6,  69 
Vega  Keal,  or  Koyal  Plain, 

182 
Vegas,  the,  of  Vuelta  Abajo, 

113 
Vegetal    wonders    of    Cuban 

forests,  87 
Veragua,  Duke  of,  first,  194; 

last,  228 
Vernon,  Admiral,  in  Cuba,  36 
Vespucci,  and  Ojeda,  415 
Victoria  de  las  Tunas,  85 
Vieque,  island  near  P.  Kico. 
Vigie,   the,    of   Saint   Lucia, 

373 
Villa  Nueva,  station  of,  71, 

74 
Ville  de  Paris,  frigate,  142 
Virgin        Islands,        Virgin 

Gorda,  266 
Volante,  where  used,  79 
Volcanic  island,  most  north- 
ern, 273 
Volcanoes,  Caribbean,  326 
Vuelto  Abajo,  The,  70 

W 

Wag  Water,  River,  Jamaica, 

123 
Wallace,   A.  W.,   on  ancient 

West  Indies,  3 
Walled  city  of  Sto.  Domingo, 

217 


Wallibou,    St.   Vincent,   380, 

381 
Warner,  Sir  Thomas,  epitaph 

on,  296 
Washington,  George,  in  West 

Indies,  396,  397 
Washington,     Lawrence,     in 

Cuba,  36 ;  in  Barbados,  396 
Water  Supply  of  Havana,  58 
Watling's  Island,  12,  18 
Watt,     Edmund,     Dominica, 

336 
"West  Indian  Gibraltar,"  the 

286,  373 
West      Indians,      the      last, 

XXIL,  342 
White  man,  in  Haiti,  174 
"White  Wings,"  the  Cuban, 

57 
Whittier,   the  Poet,   allusion 

to,  304,  335 
Windward  Islands,  306 
Wood,  General,  in  Cuba,  47, 

48,  60 
Woz  y  Gil,  Senor,  196 
Wreckers  of  Bahamas,  22 


Yallahs  River,  Jamaica,  144 
Yaqui  River,  Sto.  Domingo, 

180 
Yaqui  and  Yuna,  valleys  of 

the,  207 
Yellow   Caribs,   St.   Vincent, 

379,  380 
Y.    M.     C.     Association  *  in 

Cuba,  60 
Yumuri,  valley  of,  79 
Yunque,  Mountain  in  Cuba, 

35 

Z 

Zizi,  guide  in  Dominica,  334 


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